Make My Vote Count

The campaign for voter choice and a more representative parliament

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exploding the myths about electoral reform

It would mean permanent coalition - with the Lib Dems always in government
Untrue. Make Votes Count is campaigning for electoral reform, not 'pure' proportional representation. For example in the AV+ system, the proportional top-up element is small and would almost always result in single party governments. Since the war, only two elections that produced single party governments under first-past-the-post would have produced a coalition under AV+. These were the 1970 election (won by Heath) and the 1992 election (won by Major). Under AV+ these weak Conservative governments would have been avoided.
It would destroy the constituency link
Untrue. Again under AV+, the vast majority of MPs (up to 5 out of 6) will continue to represent a constituency as they do currently. The remaining MPs would represent small county areas. Preservation of the constituency link was one of the criteria used when the Independent Commission on Voting Systems devised AV+.
It will let in extremists, like the Austrian Freedom Party
Again, this simply isn't the case. AV+ is not pure PR. It is estimated that a party would need to get at least 8% of the vote and normally more across a county area to qualify for a top-up MP, something no far-right party in Britain has ever even come close to achieving. Indeed, AV+ would actually offer protection against extremist MPs getting elected as an overall majority of the voters in a constituency have to support that MP. The most recent example of the British National Party winning a council seat in the Isle of Dogs would almost certainly not have happened under AV+. This was demonstrated in the last Australian election, in which the leader of the racist 'One-Nation' Party, Pauline Hanson, failed to win a seat in the Lower House. On first preferences, she had a lead of 7,000 votes and would therefore have won under a First-Past-the-Post system; she didn't win because under the AV system voters were able to use their second preferences to block her.

 

Other voting systems

In Scotland members of the Scottish parliament are elected under the AMS system (first past the post in constituencies with proportional top up) and from the next round of local government elections councillors in Scotland will be elected by the STV system (preferential voting in multi-member constituencies). It is possible to design both these systems (by adjusting the proportion of top up representatives, or varying the size of multi- member constituencies) to meet the four criteria given to the Jenkins Commission of: stable government, constituency link, voter choice and broad proportionality.