Weston-super-Mare East Ward

David Cordingley, Keith Harrison and Mark Johnston - campaigning for you on the issues important to Weston Learn more

Read more on this

Read more on this

AV: The facts

How it works

  • The Alternative Vote is a simple system but infinitely fairer than the discredited First Past The Post system we currently use.
  • Instead of just placing an X in the box as at present, you rank the candidates in order of preference – as many or as few as you like.
  • You no longer need to waste your vote on someone you don’t want in order to try and keep someone else out.
  • Instead you can vote for the candidate you like best – while also making the one you like least your last choice (or not ranking him or her at all).

How it is counted

  • All first choices are counted.
  • The person who comes last is then eliminated. The second preferences for that candidate are then counted, and added to the totals of the other candidates
  • That process continues until one candidate has more than 50% of the vote

What it means

  • No MP will be elected with less than 50% of the local support
  • We keep hold of constituency MPs.
  • MPs will have to work harder to gain and keep your support.

Where it is used

  • The biggest country in which the Alternative Vote is used is Australia, where the strong political system is widely credited with helping the Australians avoid recession recently.
  • It is used in many cities in the United States to elect municipal government, including San Francisco.
  • It is used to elect the Irish president.
  • A form of the Alternative Vote is used to elect the Mayor of London – bringing both Ken Livingstone and Boris Johnson into power.
  • Most recently the Alternative Vote has been used to elect the new leader of the Labour Party. It also elects the leaders of the Conservative and Liberal Democrat parties.

(from LibDem site)