Revision:Electoral Systems

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Elections

Different electoral/voting systems used in the UK recently Additional Member System-Scottish Parliament Additional Member system (a hybrid of PR and single member plurality) They are used to elect Scottish Mps. The Additional Member System (AMS) is a voting system in which some representatives are elected from geographic constituencies and others are elected under proportional representation from party lists. Voters have two votes, one for the party and the second for the candidate in a constituency. The constituency representatives are generally elected under the first past the post voting system. The party list representatives are elected by a second vote, where the electors vote for a political party, not directly for an individual. The particular individuals selected come from lists drawn up by the political parties before the election, at a national or regional level.

First past the post system- General Elections The plurality voting system is a system used to elect members of a parliament which is based on single member constituencies. The most common system, used in the Uk as well as other countries such as the USA and Canada, is first past the post or winner-take-all, a voting system in which a single winner is chosen in a given constituency by having the most votes, regardless of whether or not he or she has a majority of votes. Supplementary Vote System – London mayor election With the supplementary vote, there are two columns on the ballot paper - one for the first choice and one for the second choice. Voters are not required to make a second choice if they do not wish to. Voters mark an 'X' in the first column for their first choice and a second 'X' in the second column for their other choice.

Voters' first preferences are counted and if one candidate gets 50% of the vote, then he or she is elected. If no candidate reaches 50% of the vote, the two highest scoring candidates are retained and the rest of the candidates are eliminated.

The second preferences on the ballot papers of the eliminated candidates are examined and any that have been cast for the two remaining candidates are given to them. Whoever has the most votes at the end of the process wins.