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Voting Systems (First Past The Post (Voters can only choose one candidate…
Voting Systems
First Past The Post
Voters can only choose one candidate to vote for, and the candidate with the most votes wins.
Results in rule by the minority - more voters infact voted for a different party than the one that won
Over time, this results in a two-party system, and voters of the minority parties realise they cannot win and therefore vote with the most similar party
Even if a third party tries to contest the two main parties it results in 'The Spoiler Effect'. The party does not win, but they end up taking away votes from the party they are most similar too, and therefore hand victory to their rival
Gerrymandering - Depending on how groups of voters are divided, certain candidates can be eliminated even if they have more support.
Strategic Voting - People end up voting for the party they dislike least, rather than the party they most like
Single Transferable Vote
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Multiple constituencies are joined together to make one bigger constituency, however this also leads to more candidates being chosen, and more parties represented.
Maintains local representatives, whilst also having a proportional system. Results in more than one representative.
If not all representatives reach the required percentage of votes then:
- The biggest loser is removed from the race, and their votes passed onto to their second choice
If there are still not enough winners then:
- The next biggest loser is eliminated and their votes passed on.
Citizens can either choose one candidate to vote for, or ranked multiple candidates if they were sure their first choice was unlikely to win.
In areas where there are more seats than political parties running there is the ability to have more than one candidate from each party, because of the ranking system. If a candidate has more votes than needed, the extra votes are passed onto their second choice. (Ignoring extra votes would go against voters who backed popular candidates)
Alternative Vote
The candidate with the lowest amount of votes is eliminated from the campaign race. However, because voters rank the candidates, we know who they would have voted for if their first choice candidate didn't run. Their votes are then passed over the their second choice
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If a candidate receives more than 50%, or becomes the last remaining candidate, then they are the winner. Otherwise, the redistributing of votes in continued.
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Still tends to result in two party system, and can be susceptible to gerrymandering, however it stops the spoiler effect.
Additional Member System
Who gets the seats? This is decided by the parties ; before the election they create a list of the members they want to receive the seats. This gives party leaders more power than other systems as they can reward good candidates by moving them higher on the list
Prevents minority rule, and allows political diversity as the second vote allows smaller parties to be represented in parliament.
Doubles the number of seats available, and every voter gets to vote for two candidates. Voters choose their top candidate to be their representative in their first vote and they win seats based off who gets the majority of votes. However, the second vote gives seats to the parties which, under the first vote, came out under represented. This is continued until each party is best represented as possible
Maintains local representatives, as well as the constituency boundaries.