Mock Referendum

Should the United Kingdom keep its current voting system, or introduce proportional representation?

The referendum is taking place tomorrow - Thursday 23th March - just outside L6.

You will be able to cast your votes during break and lunch 

Registering:

In order to make this mock event mirror the real world we required you to register to vote. This will happen at the polling stations on the day. If you do not register then you will not be allowed to cast your vote. Registering to vote is easy...all you need to do is fill out a form. You will then hand your form into the students running the polling station.

Messages from both campaigns:

Proportional representation

What is it?

• Proportional representation is the idea that seats in parliament should be allocated so that they are in proportion to the votes cast.
• Different PR systems have different ways of electing candidates. With some it is possible to vote only for a party, with others directly for candidates.
• Rather than the winner-take all approach of other systems, PR ensures that votes carry equal weight. To do this, a single area elects more than one representative. The size of this area can vary according to the system, ranging from the size of the whole country to a county or local area

Advantages:

• Minority parties and independent candidates would have a better chance of winning seats in parliament (e.g. Green Party)
• Parties would have to appeal to their core voters rather than ‘swing voters’ in marginal seats
• Fewer votes are wasted as more people’s preferences are taken into account
• You vote for what you want rather than against what you don’t
• Could encourage greater turnout, reduce apathy and increase political engagement
• PR ensures greater continuity of government and requires greater consensus in policy-making
• More representative than first past the post where candidates can be elected with a very small share of the votes while all other votes cast in the constituency are wasted

Common misconceptions:

• “It breaks the constituency links”- more people get a representative they voted for and it is far easier to hold those MPs to account – there are no taken-for-granted ‘safe seats’ in PR. A democratic voting system strengthens the link between voters and their representatives as every vote counts and MPs have to fight for every vote.
• “It gives small parties too much power”- under proportional representation small parties gain political power based on their share of the vote. Under First Past the Post meanwhile, a small group of people who happen to live in seats not nominated by any party get to dictate the manifestos and policies of the government. With first past the post, geography is more important than democracy

First past the post

What is it?

• FPTP is the voting system used for the election of MPs to 'seats' in the UK Parliament. It is a system in which the 'winner takes all' and usually gives a clear majority both at constituency and national level.
• This means that a candidate in a constituency only needs one more vote than the nearest rival to win the seat. Similarly, political parties only need to win one more seat in the House of Commons to have a majority.

Advantages:

• It’s simple to understand.
• It doesn’t cost much to administer.
• It’s is fairly quick to count the votes and work out who has won; meaning results can be declared relatively quickly after the polls close.
• In a political environment, FPTP enables voters to clearly express a view on which party they think should form the next government.
• FPTP is ideally suited to a two-party system and generally produces single-party governments, although the 2010 UK General Election was an obvious exception
• Single-party governments by and large don’t have to rely on support from other parties to pass legislation, though as the UK has found that is not always necessarily the case as the current Coalition Government demonstrates.
• Some would argue that FPTP voting systems encourage broad-church centrist policies and discourage extremist points of view

Common misconceptions:

“You need majority to win” - The winning candidate does not need to achieve a majority of votes (50%+1) in their constituency. For example in 2010, Labour candidate Glenda Jackson won her seat in Hampstead and Kilburn with only 32.8% of the vote