Other Voting Systems
• Although FPTP and
AMS are used in
British Parliamentary
elections, there are
other voting systems
you should be aware of
1. Alternative Vote (AV)
2. Single Transferable
Vote (STV)
Alternative Vote
• The Liberal Democrats
proposed that the voting
system used in UK elections
be changed from FPTP to the
Alternative Vote
• It is used in some elections
in Australia and the Labour
Party and Liberal Democrat
Party in UK use it to elect
their leaders
Alternative Vote
• In May 2011, the country
voted “No” in a referendum
on whether to change the
voting system to AV.
• The “Yes” campaign failed
for many reasons…
• Lib Dems failed to capture
public’s attention and people
found the system too hard to
understand
Alternative Vote
• The winning candidate has to
achieve an overall majority of
the votes cast
• Voters write “1” beside their
first choice of candidate, “2”
beside their next choice and so
on
• Only need to vote for first
choice but have option to put
down second, third choices
etc…
Alternative Vote
• If no party has an absolute
majority of first preferences,
the lowest placed candidate
drops out and the second
preferences of his/her votes
are transferred to the
remaining candidates
• If this does not produce a
candidate with more than 50%
of the votes then the procedure
is repeated until it does
Alternative Vote
Advantages
Disadvantages
•1 representative per
constituency
•The candidate who gets
most first preference vote
might not get elected
•MPs will have gained the
majority of the vote and
have a broader support
•It retains all the same
weaknesses as FPTP and is
still unfair to smaller
parties
Single Transferable Vote
• This is the voting
system used for
Scottish local
government (council)
elections since 2007
• It is also used in
Northern Ireland
Elections
Single Transferable Vote
• Representatives are chosen
from multi-member
constituencies. In a fivemember local government
constituency (ward), voters
rank their preferences among
the candidates using the
figures 1-5 (can be many more
candidates than this)
• Voters can vote for as many
or as few candidates as they
want
Single Transferable Vote
• A complicated quota system
is used to calculate the
number of votes required to
win one seat
• This is calculated by
dividing the number of
votes cast by the number of
seats available plus one
Single Transferable Vote
Advantages
•STV gives voters more
choice than any other
system. This in turn puts
most power in the hands of
the voters, rather than the
party leaders
•Fewer votes are 'wasted'
Disadvantages
•Takes a long time to
calculate results
•Very difficult and
complicated mathematics
used to calculate results