Supplementary vote

Question 1

Which UK elections use supplementary vote?

Answer 1

London and other mayors and police and crime commissioners

Question 2

Why type of electoral system is SV?

Answer 2

Majoritarian

Question 3

What is a majoritarian electoral system?

Answer 3

Candidates must gain a majority of the votes to be elected

Question 4

Majoritarian electoral system

Answer 4

Parties can get a majority of the seats without necessarily obtaining a majority of the votes cast, meaning governments are often formed without the support of 50% of those who voted
Often ensures one party obtains a majority of the seats in a legislature
Associated with strong, sinhle party gov as it tends to give a “winner’s bonus” to the party with the most seats

Question 5

Supplementary vote procedure

Answer 5

Voters have 2 preferential votes, they place 1 in the first column for the first choice and 2 in the next column for their second choice
If a candidate wins more than 50% of the first-choice votes, they are elected
If no candidate wins 50% of the votes, all but the top two candidates are eliminated
Second preference votes for the two remaining candidates (on ballot papers of the eliminated candidates) are then counted
The candidate with the most first and second choice votes is elected

Question 6

Example of supplementary votes: London mayoral election results 2021

Answer 6

Labour candidate: Sadiq Khan, Conservative candidate: Shaun Bailey, Green candidate: Sian Berry
Lab 1st round vote: 1,013,721 (40%) Lab 2nd round vote: 1,206,034 (55.2%)
Con 1st round vote: 893,051 (35.3%) Con 2nd round vote: 977,601 (44.8%)
Green 1st round vote: 197,976 (7.8%) Green 2nd round vote: Eliminated

Question 7

Advantages of supplementary vote

Answer 7

Encourages moderate campaigning, as gaining second-choice votes is important
Relatively simple system to understand and use
System that could most easily replace FPTP. All that would change would be the way ballot cards were marked
All MPs would have the support of a majority of their voters
Reduces tactical voting as you can vote for your first-choice candidate without fear of wasting your vote
Ensures good MP-constituency links as it uses single-member constituencies

Question 8

Disadvantages to supplementary voting

Answer 8

Promotes voting for candidates from the main three parties because only two candidates can make the cut; therefore smaller parties will not secure enough first preferences
If there are more than two strong candidates, voters must guess which two will make the final round. If they guess incorrectly, their 2nd choice vote will be wasted
Voters may need to vote tactically if they want their vote to count
It may mean that not all MPs secure the support of a majority of voters, because some of the second choices will be for previously eliminated candidates