Electoral Systems - Single Transferable Vote Flashcards
PROPORTIONAL principles
They are meant to get a more proportional result - there is a strong link between the votes cast and the representation.
Winning party receives 38% of the vote? Then about 38% of the representatives elected are from that party.
These are often more complicated.
Many proportional systems work in multi-member constituencies where larger size constituencies will elect two representatives.
What the hell is ordinal voting?
Ranked voting - voter is asked to rank the candidates in the order of preference.
Are there any safe seats?
Fewer votes are wasted so more voters will have helped to elect one representative.
There are no safe seats - candidates cannot be complacent and parties must dedicate the same amount of campaigning time everywhere, not just in the marginals - no tactical voting.
Positives -
2022 May election STV - PROPORTIONALITY
It delivers a result which has a close correlation between the % of votes cast and the % of seats gained which increases the legitimacy of the result.
Sinn Fein won 29% of the vote in the 1st preference vote but won 30% of the seats.
DUP won 21% of the vote and won 28% of the seats.
Positives - voter choice
they have a variety of parties to choose from and they have a variety of candidates from the party to choose from - they may like the party but if they do not like the candidate, they can choose someones else because of the multi-member constituency.
this is why it was selected in 1998 Good Friday Agreement when the power-sharing agreement between Unionists and Nationalists because it ensured cooperation.
Positives - multi-member constituencies
means that a voter is far more likely to have someone elected who accurately represents their beliefs and ideology.
each constituency (of the 18) returns one MP to the Commons and five MLAs (members of the legislative assembly) to the devolved NI Assembly at Stormont.
Negatives - the most complicated
THE MOST COMPLICATED THING EVER IT IS SO UNNECESSARILY COMPLICATED - ME NO LIKEY, IT WILL REDUCE TURNOUT.
Negatives - coalition more likely
unlike the single-party strong government - Good Friday Agreement in N.I means there always has to be a coalition in power - proportional nature of STV means that a coalition is the most likely result.
this leads to ineffective governing - Stormont collapsed in 2017 Jan when DUP and Sinn Fein split in a bitter row over the DUP’s handling of the green energy scandal.
in May 2022 - Jeff Donaldson (DUP leader) said he would block the formation of a new power-sharing administration in Stormont - DUP won’t nominate any ministers (FM inc) until Downing Street takes ‘decisive action’ on NI protocol.
Feb report - since devolution, Stormont has been without a functioning government for 35% of its lifespan.
Negatives - constituency link in MMCs
no constituency link as deep as the FPTP or SV vote - no elected representatives as in FPTP or AMS and larger multi-member constituencies = link between elected representatives and their local areas are much weaker.
ACCOUNTABILITY is difficult - how do you scrutinise and have effective by-elections?
Negatives - it takes longer to count
results take much longer to be announced than if using FPTP or any other system.
Negatives - donkey voting
2022 May article
voters vote for candidates in the order they appear on the ballot so ballots can be spoiled if they are too complicated.
STV is also used in local Scottish elections -
the ERS: 40,000 ballot papers were rejected in the local elections count in 2017 using STV (constituting nearly 2% of votes)
2022 May NI Assembly election
results + turnout too (which isn’t that good tbh)
of the 90 seats, Sinn Fein won 27 with the DUP winning 25 - for the first time - its unprecendented for a nationalist to become first minister.
Unionist parties have always had the most seats at Stormont since NI was formed in 1921.
turnout = 64%
