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Popular Vote

Hi!

As I will be turning 18 in a few months, I have been looking into politics! But it completely baffles me!

What does the term 'popular vote' mean and how does this differ from the majority of seats?!

Any help will be much appreciated!

Thanks!


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Reply 2
Avatar for BKS
BKS
19
Popular vote has a more technical meaning in the US but in the UK it's mostly a colloquialism. It means it was votes on by all the voters, rather than just in parliament by MPs. Or it means number of votes received in such a vote. Because it's a not technical word it gets used to mean things it is similar too such as majority of seats (since majority of seats usually means majority of votes).

You can say 'it is going to popular vote' which would mean the issue will be voted on by a referendum. Or you can say 'they won by popular vote' meaning they won the most votes- though what could really be meant is they won the election which isn't the same thing.

The torries won the last election by popular vote but not by big enough a margin to get a majority of seats. Most of the time the party who gets the most votes (which in the UK is never actually over 50% but rather a larger percent than any other one party) gets the most seats so they will be used interchangeably.

Because of the system used in Westminster elections, it is possible to get the largest % of the vote across the country but not win the most seats. It's easier to explain by example but say 3 constituencies of 100 votes each.

Constituency 1- Labour 37, Lib Dems 27, Torries 20, Others 16
Constituency 2- Tories 51, Lib Dem 35, Labour 12, Other 2
Constituency 3- Labour 43, Lib Dem 40, Torries 17

The winner in each case is the first in the list as they have the most votes. Labour wins 2 seats so wins overall but the Lib Dems got 102 votes, Labour got 92, Torries got 88. Lib Dems were really the winners by popular vote but they got no seats.


That might be a bit clear as mud but non-technical word.
Reply 3
Avatar for R-123
R-123
OP
That's great thankyou!


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