Voting Trends: Tatical voting

Question 1

What is tactical voting?

Answer 1

• As in elections, many votes are considered wasted because they have no influence on the outcome.
• Examples could be for a small party (Lib Dems/Green).
• Therefore, will abandon their first-party preference and typically vote for one party that does have the chance to win a constituency.

Question 2

Examples of tactical voting

Answer 2

• Labour voting Conservative to keep out a UKIP candidate in a Conservative-UKIP battle.
• Green party supporters voting Labour to keep out a Conservative in a Labour-Conservative battle.

Question 3

Impact of tactical voting on electoral outcome

Answer 3

• John Curtice = estimated in 2015, it could have affected the result in as many as 77 constituencies - doesn’t mean that many actually were affected in the event.
• Doesn’t answer the impact on the final results.
• Evidence from Scotland 2015 - suggests no effect.
• Most attempts to persuade people to vote tactically involved keeping out SNP candidates, but the SNP won handsomely.
• However, the slump in Lib Dem voting in 2015 GE might be explained by tactical voting.
• None of the parties instructed formal instructions to vote tactically - until then, it remains impossible to estimate.