Other Electoral Systems

Question 1

Supplementary Vote (SV)

Answer 1

• used to elect mayor of London and directly elect other mayors
• elect police and crime commissioners
• voter records their first and second preferences on the ballot paper (not required to make second choice)
• if no candidate wins a majority of first preferences all but the top two candidates are eliminated and the second preference votes for remaining candidates are added together
• candidate with highest total is elected
  Mayor of London 2016:
  Sadiq Khan (Lab) - 44.2% (1st choice) 65.5% (2nd choice)
  Zac Goldsmith (Con) - 35% (1st choice) 34.5% (2nd choice)

Question 2

Advantages of Supplementary Vote

Answer 2

• winning candidate must achieve broad support (greater legitimacy)
• supporters of smaller parties can use their first preference to express
  allegiance and second preference to indicate which major party candidate they prefer
• votes of people who use both their first and second preferences to
  support minor parties do not influence election outcome

Question 3

Disadvantages of Supplementary Vote

Answer 3

• winning candidate may be elected without a majority of votes if second preference votes not used effectively
• Voters need to use their preferences for one of the top two candidates in order to affect the outcome
• winning candidate doesn’t need to get a majority of first preference votes
• the candidate who secures most first preference votes may not be elected after second preferences are distributed (least unpopular may be)
• system would not deliver a proportional outcome if used for
  general elections

Question 4

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

Answer 4

• used in Northern Ireland for elections to the Assembly, local gov and European parliament
• used in local elections in Scotland
• representatives are elected in large multi member constituencies (NI Assembly - 18 constituencies each elect 6 members)
• voting is preferential (electors indicate their preferences by writing ‘1’ besides first choice and ‘2’ by second choice ect)
• voting is ordinal ( electors can vote for as many candidates)
• a candidate must achieve Droop quota:
  total valid poll
  (seats available + 1) +1
• any votes in access are redistributed to second candidate
• if no candidate reaches quota on first count the lowest placed candidate is eliminated and second preferences transferred
  Northern Ireland Assembly 2017:
  Democratic Unionist: 28.1 % (1st choice) 28 (seats)
  Sinn Fein: 27.9% (1st choice) 27 (seats)

Question 5

Advantages Of Single Transferable Vote

Answer 5

• delivers proportional outcomes and ensures votes are largely of equal value
• government is likely to consist of a party or group of parties that
  win over 50% of the vote
• voters choose between a range of candidates including different
  candidates from the same party (greater choice)

Question 6

Disadvantages of single Transferable Vote

Answer 6

• can be less accurate in translating votes into seats than proportional
  representation list systems
• large multi-member constituencies weaken link between individual
  MPs and their constituency
• likely to produce a coalition government that may be unstable
• can give disproportional influence to minor parties that hold balance of power
• counting process lengthy and complex

Question 7

Additional Member System (AMS)

Answer 7

• mixed electoral system including elements of FPTP and regional list
• sometimes referred to as a
  mixed-member proportional system - used to elect the Scottish Parliament, Welsh Assembly and London. Assembly
• a proportion of seats in the legislative assembly are elected using FPTP in single-member constituencies: 73 out of 129 members (57%) of
  the Scottish Parliament are elected in single-member constituencies,
  40 of the 60 members (67%) of the Welsh Assembly
  • a smaller number of representatives, (additional members) are elected in multi-member constituencies using the regional list system to elect 56 members (43%) of the Scottish Parliament and 20 members (33%)
  of the Welsh Assembly
• Electors cast two votes: one for their favoured candidate in a single-
  member constituency and one for their favoured party from a closed
  party list in a multi-member constituency
• for regional list seats, political parties draw up a list of their candidates and decide the order in which they will be elected
• closed list system so electors can only vote for a party or an
  independent candidate
• list of candidates for each party appears on the ballot paper but electors cannot choose between candidates of the same party.
• Regional list seats (additional members) are allocated on a corrective basis to ensure the total number of seats for parties in the
  assembly is proportional to the number of votes won
• a party that has won a disproportionately high number of constituency seats may not win many list seats
• Regional list seats allocated using the d’Hondt formula (total number of votes for each party is divided by the number of seats it already has, plus the next seat to be allocated
• the party totals are divided first by 1 then by 2 and so on
• first seat goes to the party with the largest number
• candidates are elected in the order they appear on the party list
• to win seats in the London Assembly a party must also pass a threshold of 5% of the vote (no threshold for Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly elections)

Question 8

Advantages of Additional Member System

Answer 8

• combines the best features of FPTP and proportional representation (e.g. balancing the desirability of constituency representation with that of fairness of outcomes)
• results broadly proportional and votes less likely to be wasted
• voters have greater choice
• Split-ticket voting is allowed (a voter may use their constituency vote to support a candidate from one party and their list vote to support a different party)
• some parties have used the system to improve the representation of women (e.g. by ‘zipping’ alternating male and female candidates on party lists)
• votes easy to count and is not difficult for voters to understand
  how outcome is reached

Question 9

Disadvantages of Additional Member System

Answer 9

• creates two categories of representative (one with constituency
  duties and one without) may create tensions within the legislative
  assembly
• parties have significant control over closed lists used to leet additional members and voters cannot choose between candidates from same party
• smaller parties often under-represented as in many multi
  member seats only a few representatives are elected
• larger parties are over-represented if other votes are split evenly between many small parties
• proportional outcomes less likely where the number of additional members is low (Welsh Assembly)

Question 10

2016 Scottish Parliament Election

Answer 10

• SNP dominated the constituency contests winning 59/ 73 seats but added only 4 list seats ( 46.5% vote)
• party fell 2 seats short of a majority and formed a minority government
• Conservatives won 7 seats (22% vote)
• Labour won 3 seats ( 22.6% vote)
• Greens contested only 3 constituency contests, but secured 6 list seats
• second time that AMS had produced an SNP minority government
• 1999 and 2003 contests
  both resulted in a Labour-Liberal Democrat coalition
• 2011 AMS delivered a majority government when SNP won 73% of constituency seats