Electoral systems

Question 1

STV case studies

Answer 1

• Scotland (2017)
  = 40,000 invalid votes
  = 1.95% of all votes cast
• 2017= DUP won 28% of the vote, so won 28 seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly
• 2021= Scottish Green Party won 8.1% swing vote= 8 seats

Question 2

extremist party under FPTP

Answer 2

• 2010 GE= BNP won 563,743 votes and 0 seats

Question 3

3rd parties under FPTP

Answer 3

• 2015 GE= UKIP won 3.9 mil votes and only 1 seat

Question 4

wasted votes under FPTP

Answer 4

electoral reform society said that 74.4% votes cast in 2015 were wasted

Question 5

AMS case studies

Answer 5

• Green won 1.29% constituency votes but 8.12% top up votes
  = won 8 seats overall in 2021 Scottish Parl election
• 1999-2003= Scottish Labour and Scottish LD coalition
  = 73 collective seats
• 2003-2007= Scottish labour minority
  = only won 39.9% vote share and only 50 seats out of 129
• 1999 scot parl election= tories won 0 constituency MPs despite 15.6 vote share
  = but won 18 AMS seats= 14% seats overall

Question 6

Describe STV

Answer 6

The voter votes for candidates in order of preference, any candidate who has gained his “quota” of votes on the first choice is elected, a candidate with more than the necessary quota of 1st choice votes has the surplus redistributed to the 2nd choice, so there is no “wasted vote”
- Northern Ireland Assembly
- Scotland and NI local government elections

Question 7

Describe AMS

Answer 7

voter gets two votes - One vote is cast for a constituency MP, under FPTP rules, the other vote is cast for a party
- Scottish Parliament Elections

Question 8

adv refs

Answer 8

• if politicians can’t agree= more power to public to unite disagreements
• helps educate public on important issues
• makes gov listen to party and the ppl e.g. 2014 Scot ind ref