Which voting method did the Third Estate favor in the Estates-General?

• A. Vote by Estate
• B. Vote by Class
• C. Vote by Head
• D. Secret Ballot

Answer: (C)

The question tests how voting rules shape political power in a representative body. The Third Estate favored voting by head because it counts each deputy as an individual vote, aligning representation with population. Since the Third Estate made up the vast majority of the population, voting by head would give them real influence and prevent the two privileged estates from blocking reforms by voting together through a single estate vote.

Why this fits: with one vote per head, the Third Estate’s numbers translate into actual leverage, whereas under a system that counts by estate, the First and Second Estates could band together to outvote the Third Estate despite its larger size. The problem wasn’t about secrecy of ballots; it was about weighting votes to reflect population, which is why voting by head is the best answer.

Voting by estate would preserve the old privilege structure; voting by class isn’t how the Estates-General operated; and secret ballots, while a different reform concept, don’t address the issue of unequal voting power between the estates.