Voting Systems

STV - The Single Transferable Vote was used for the first time in Scotland at the local government elections which took place on 3 May 2007.

Instead of marking a cross, voters indicate their preferences on the ballot paper by ranking the candidates in order (first, second, third, etc.) and may vote in this way for as many or as few of the listed candidates as they wish.

A formula is then used to calculate who is elected for each ward. Each Council ward returns either three or four councillors to represent local people. As a further innovation, the counting for this type of election is now done electronically. This is designed to speed up the counting process and improve the accuracy of the results. Please click here to find out more about electronic counting.

FPTP - First Past the Post voting takes place in single-member parliamentary constituencies. To vote under FPTP, the voter simply puts a cross on the ballot paper next to one candidate. The candidate with the most votes wins.

AMS - The Additional Member System elects representatives from geographic constituencies and others from party lists under a form of proportional representation.

Essentially, electors have two votes, one for the party or individual candidate on a list and the other for a candidate in a constituency. The constituency representatives are elected under the first-past-the post system.

A Closed Party List is used for electing representatives to the European Parliament. Rather than voting in a single -member constituency for a specific candidate, electors vote only for a party in a multi-member constituency, or, as in the case of Scotland, a whole country.

Each party's list of candidates, ranked accordingly to the party's preference, is published on the ballot paper and electors may place a single cross next to their choice. All the votes are counted and each party is allocated seats in the constituency in broadly the same proportion to the votes it has won. Those who became the party's elected representatives are those placed highest in the party's list of candidates.

 

For information on the different types of elections where these different voting systems are used please click here.