The electoral system used for the mayoral elections in London is that of “first after office”, in which voters vote for the candidate of their choice and the candidate who receives the most votes wins. This system, however, has been replaced by Supplementary Voting (SV) in order to give more people a say in who their elected official is. In this article, we will discuss the voting system used in London elections and how it works. Supplementary Voting (SV) is a majority electoral system which allows voters to rank their two main candidates in order of preference.
This system is used for mayoral elections and police and crime commissioners in the United Kingdom. It was proposed by Labour Party parliamentarian Dale Campbell-Savours in 1989 as an alternative to the voting system in which people voted first after the post in the UK parliamentary elections. In Supplementary Voting, only the first and second preferences are counted, while, with the Alternative Voting (AV) system, all candidates are ranked in order of preference. During an election, voters can select their preferred candidate in one column of the ballot and their second preferred candidate in another column. This system allows more people to have a say in who their elected official is, since they can show their preference in both the initial election and the second round. The Government announced on Wednesday that future mayoral elections in England, including the mayoral elections in London, will be decided using the post-voting system, in which the winner is decided by a simple majority.
A report on the local elections in May by the Electoral Commission revealed that the rejection rate of ballots in the London mayoral elections was higher than in previous years, with more than 87,000 ballots rejected because voters chose more than one candidate for their first preference. The Government has said that the supplementary voting system currently used in the London mayoral elections “confuses voters” and has resulted in thousands of invalid, wasted or blank votes.
Advantages of Supplementary Voting
The main advantage of Supplementary Voting is that it allows voters to express their preferences more accurately than with a single-choice voting system. This means that voters can choose between two candidates without having to worry about splitting their vote between multiple candidates. Additionally, it allows for a more accurate representation of public opinion since it takes into account both first and second preferences.Disadvantages of Supplementary Voting
The main disadvantage of Supplementary Voting is that it can be confusing for some voters.Since they have to rank two candidates instead of just one, some may find it difficult to make an informed decision. Additionally, it can be difficult to count votes accurately since there are two sets of preferences to consider.
Conclusion
Supplementary Voting (SV) is a majority electoral system which allows voters to rank their two main candidates in order of preference. This system is used for mayoral elections and police and crime commissioners in the United Kingdom and has been adopted as an alternative to first after office voting. It allows for a more accurate representation of public opinion since it takes into account both first and second preferences.However, it can be confusing for some voters and can be difficult to count votes accurately.
