The electrol system

Question 1

What is the franchise?

Answer 1

The right to vote

Question 2

What is universal suffrage?

Answer 2

Where the right to vote was no longer restricted to property-owning classes and extended to everyone.

Question 3

What happened in the 1832 property-owning reform act

Answer 3

It massively expanded the franchise to all adult men who owned property worth more than £10

Question 4

What happened in the 1918 representation of the people act?

Answer 4

Gave the vote to women for the first time, but they had to be over the age of 30 years. Men over 21

Question 5

what happened in the 1928 representation of the people act?

Answer 5

Franchise extended to men and woman over 21.

Question 6

What happened in the 1969 property-owning of the people act?

Answer 6

Voting age lowered to 18

Question 7

What is a general election

Answer 7

It is when 650 MPs resign to contest their seats.

Question 8

What is a by-election?

Answer 8

Its an election in a single constituency caused by the death or resignation of an MP

Question 9

What did the 2010 coalition goverment introduce?

Answer 9

Fixed term Its of 5 years.

Question 10

What happens in a vote of no confidence

Answer 10

within the government or a vote of no confidence by two-thirds of the house of commons can trigger an election.

Question 11

Who can vote in national elections?

Answer 11

British, Irish, Commonwealth citizens noramally resident in the UK.
must be 18 plus
Must be on the electroal register

Question 12

Who cant vote in national elections?

Answer 12

• Peers sitting in the House of Lords.
• Foreigners (including EU citizens).
• Patients detained under the mental health act for crimes.
• Convicted prisoners (controversial as the European Court of Human Rights says the blanket ban is illegal.
• People convicted of corrupt or illegal elections practices.
• Queen and heirs don’t vote, although there is no law stopping them.

Question 13

Who can stand in national elections?

Answer 13

you have to be 18 plus

you have to be british, irish or commonwealth citizen resident in the UK

Question 14

Who cant stand in a national election?

Answer 14

Peers.
• Undischarged bankrupts.
• Patients convicted of crimes under the mental health act.
• Prisoners serving more than one year in jail (so prisoners can’t vote but can stand as candidates!).
• People convicted of corrupt election practices (10 year ban in same constituency, five years if in another one).
• Senior civil servants.
• Police officers.
• Members of the armed forces.
• Judges

Question 15

What is plurality voting?

Answer 15

• General election decided by ‘plurality’ voting - otherwise known as First Past the Post.
• Simple easy to understand system.
• The candidate with the most votes is elected.
• The party with the majority of votes forms the government.
• There are 650 seats - so if a party reaches 326 they can form a government as even if all the other parties group together they can only muster 324 seats - not enough to defeat the government.

Question 16

What happens if no party gets 326?

Answer 16

• If no party gets 326 - known as a hung parliament - they can either:
o Try to govern as a minority administration, on a vote by vote basis, which is unstable as they can be defeated at any moment if the other parties gang up on them
o They could enter into a “confidence and supply” agreement with other parties whereby smaller parties support the government on big votes (such as the Budget)
o Or they can try to form a formal coalition with other parties to reach the magic 326 figure (eg 2010 Coalition) with an agreed list of legislation

Question 17

What are the other voting systems?

Answer 17

• Single Transferable Vote (STV) - Voters mark candidates in order of preference in multi member constituencies. If one reaches the quota (that is, for example, 20% of first preferences in a five member constituency), the surplus votes from that candidate are re-calculated with their second choices now counted as a first choice. (Used in Northern Ireland Assembly elections)
• Party List - The parties list their chosen candidates in order of priority and voters invited to vote for that party. Open party lists give voters some say in the order of the lists; in closed party lists voters have no say in the order of the list. (Used in European elections)
• Alternative Vote – This operates in single member constituencies. If a candidate has more than 50% of votes he/she is elected. If not the candidate with the least number of votes is eliminated and that candidate’s votes redistributed according to second choices.
• Supplementary Vote - If no candidate gets majority then all but top two eliminated and votes redistributed according to second choices. (Used in London mayor elections).
• Additional Member System (AMS) - Hybrid system where some candidates are elected in single member constituencies according to FPTP and second votes are used to top up from regional lists. (Used in Scottish Parliament elections

Question 18

Why is the FPTP voting system seen as unfair?

Answer 18

because it does not distribute seats on the basis of the proportion of votes cast. Votes cast for any candidate but the winner are effectively ‘wasted’.

Question 19

What is the electroal process?

Answer 19

• Candidates must pay £500 deposit which is lost if fewer than 5% of votes cast. This is known as losing your deposit
• Candidates can spend £7,150 plus 5p per voter (7p in rural areas) on campaigning
• Spending is overseen by the Electoral Commission
• Elections always take place on Thursdays
• Polls close 10pm and ballot boxes sealed and taken to the count
• Election workers count the votes into piles. Candidates and party workers and the press can observe the process to ensure there is no electoral fraud
• The whole process overseen by the Returning Officer (usually local council officer) who announces the result
• Candidates can demand a recount if the vote is close.
• If the result is a dead heat lots are drawn.

Question 20

When has there been low turnout and political apathy? what ideas have been suggested to boost votes?

Answer 20

In the 1950 General Election 83.9% of eligible voters turned out to cast their vote
• In 2015 the figure was 66.1%
• Other elections are even worse:
• Police and Crime Commissioner elections - average of 15% turnout
• Local authority elections - 42%
• European elections - 35%
• This has led to a number of ideas to boost voting:
o Making voting compulsory (Australia does this) with fines for those who don’t vote
o Electronic voting
o Voting over more than one day
o Voting on Saturdays or over the weekends
o Placing polling stations in supermarkets and shopping centres

Question 21

What happens in local authority elections?

Answer 21

• Councillors are elected for four-year terms
• Local authorities divided into wards.
• Up to three councillors can represent each ward
• Local authorities can choose:
o To have all the councillors facing election every four years
o To have half of them facing election every two years
o To have a third of councillors facing election every year with a fallow year when there are no elections (e.g. Sheffield).
• Different authorities have chosen different election cycles so the result is confusion that some people argue just contributes to political apathy among the electorate

Question 22

Who can stand in local authority elections?

Answer 22

• UK and Irish and Commonwealth and EU citizens resident in the UK (Note EU citizens are included).
• Must be on electoral register or resident for 12 months.
• Or have his/her main place of work in the area for 12 months.
• Or own property for 12 months

Question 23

Who can vote in local authority elections?

Answer 23

• Must be on electoral register.
• Must be 18+
• UK, Irish, EU and Commonwealth citizens (note – EU citizens can vote in local authority elections but not in general elections).

Question 24

Who cant vote in local authority elections?

Answer 24

• Patient convicted of crimes under mental health act.

* Anyone convicted of corrupt election practices.

Question 25

When does voting normally take place?

Answer 25

£600 or £2000 for directly elected mayors.