Record public consultation response overwhelming says First-Past-the-Post is a barrier to voting

On the day the Government's public consultation on weekend voting¹ closes, Make Votes Count can exclusively reveal that this has been the number one Governance of Britain consultation the Ministry of Justice has received correspondence on. ^2,3,4

The vast majority of people responding have pinpointed the current system for electing MPs as a key barrier to voting. Many would also prefer the Government to prioritise reforming the electoral system than examining the election day itself.⁵

Malcolm Clark, Director of Make Votes Count, commented:

"Loud and clear people have been saying it doesn't matter which day of the week an election is held on, if your vote doesn't stand much of a chance of affecting the result there may be little incentive to actually vote at all."

"I have seen over 600 individual responses, from across the nation and the political spectrum, describing people's experiences of elections and the negative impact the voting system has on turnout and overall engagement levels."⁶

"The Ministry of Justice should not be surprised at the level of interest sparked in this debate or the messages coming from members of the public. In their own Governance of Britain local engagement events, the MoJ reports hearing exactly the same points."⁷

"It is time the Government started tackling the real issue of making votes count, instead of just the minor tweaks to the voting process that it is currently considering."

Notes:

1. The Ministry of Justice launched its weekend voting consultation on 24 June 2008. The consultation ends today, 26 September. The full document is available at http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/cp1308.pdf and the response questionnaire document is available at http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/cp1308-questionnaire.doc

2. Make Votes Count was copied into over 600 individual responses to the weekend voting consultation.

3. The MoJ's own 'Analysis of Consultations', published in March 2008, recorded that "the Government received nearly 1000 separate responses in the first year of its Governance of Britain consultations." (para 2, page 5) http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/ governance-analysis-consultations.pdf  

4. Last year's 'Managing Protest around Parliament' consultation was previously the most popular one. In its Analysis of Consultations the Government stated that it "received 512 responses during the 12 week consultation period …with most responses – over 90 percent – from members of the public." (para 11, page 7-8) http://www.justice.gov.uk/docs/ governance-analysis-consultations.pdf

5. Question 9 of the consultation asked ""Are you aware of any barriers which prevent individuals from voting? What are the issues and how can they be overcome?". Almost all of the responses we have seen answered this question by referring to First-Past-the-Post as the primary barrier to voting.

6. A selection of responses is available on request from Make Votes Count.

7. Summaries of the Governance of Britain local engagement events can be found on the Ministry of Justice's website and include these observations:

"The overarching message from the discussion was that the prime motivating factors that affect participation are if the issues at stake are of interest to people and the extent to which people feel their participation will make a difference." (London event, 22 July 2008)
http://governance.justice.gov.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2008/08/london-note-of-table-discussions.pdf

"Our current electoral system, whilst having the merit of producing stable government, results in a disproportionate number of seats for the governing party. In addition because the majority of seats are considered safe for one or other of the parties, a large number of the votes cast make no difference to the outcome of a general election. This produces a disincentive to vote. Participants thought that a system of proportional representation, with or without the constituency link, would have a positive impact on turnout." (Bristol event, 30 June 2008) http://governance.justice.gov.uk/wp-content/ uploads/2008/07/bristol-30-june-table-discussions.pdf

Tell the Ministry of Justice what the real barriers to voting are

The Government is consulting on whether to move to weekend voting, as a way of increasing turnout.  We urgently need your help in responding to this consultation, and making the case for First-Past-the-Post being a big barrier to voting.  Point out that it doesn't matter which day of the week an election is held on, as if your vote doesn't stand much of a chance of counting there may be little incentive to actually vote at all.  Handily, there is a open-ended final question on the consultation where we can make these, and other electoral reform related, arguments.  We've got it all set up on our website, so it should only take you a minute or two to respond and be part of this campaign. Or for a paper copy, download and print off the action sheet here.

Or download a copy of the action sheet, which includes the form to fill in.

The challenge:
The Government received less a thousand separate responses in total to all their past Governance of Britain consultations (war powers, attorney general, flag flying, managing protest around Parliament). About 500 of these were just on managing protest around Parliament, mainly submitted by members of the public.  Hence our target is to make an impression - by getting close to that figure, and ideally beating it.  And, as this is an official consultation, all the responses get logged, summarised and reported back - within Government and publicly.  

So please do your part to help us achive this goal and tell the MoJ that First-Past-the-Post is the real barrier to voting.  And remember, the consultation closes 26 September, so responses are needed by then.