Voting Systems

Today we will…

• Understand the voting system of the Scottish Parliament.

Success Criteria• Identify the voting system used in the SP elections.

• Describe how the voting system works.

• Identify the difference between different MSPs

The Additional Member System• The voting system used for

Scottish Parliament elections is the Additional Member System (AMS).

• This is a form of Proportional Representation. The number of seats won by each party will be roughly equivalent to the number of votes it receives.

• Elections are held every 4 years.

• First election – 1999, second – 2003 and third – 2007 and 2011.

How it Works • There are 129 MSPs.

• There are 2 different types of MSPs: ‘Constituency’ MSPs and ‘Regional List’ MSPs’.

• 2 different ballot papers are used to elect the different types of MSPs.

Constituency MSPs• There are 73 constituencies in Scotland.• Each constituency elects 1 MSP using FPTP.• A lilac (purple) colored ballot paper is used to

elect constituency MSPs.• You put a ‘x’ beside the name of the candidate

you want to vote for.

Regional List MSPs

For these MSPs, Scotland is divided into 8 regions: Highland and Islands, NE Scotland, Mid Scotland and Fife, West of Scotland, Glasgow, Central, Lothians and South of Scotland.

•There are 56 ‘List’ MSPs.•Each region has 7 ‘List’ MSPs.•A peach coloured ballot paper is used. •Party List system of PR is used.•You put a cross beside the name of a party you want to vote for.

The Party List

• Each party supplies a list of candidates.

• Most favored candidates are at the top of the list.

• 7 rounds of calculations take place using a formula.

The Result

Each person in Scotland is represented by a total

of 8 MSPs.

1 Constituency MSP +

7 Regional MSPs

VOTERS HAVE TWO TYPES OF MSP

A Constituency MSP Example of Linda Fabiani (SNP), East Kilbride

Several Regional “list” MSPs, example of Central Scotland

Claire AdamsonSNP

John WilsonIndependent

Margaret McCulloch Labour

Margaret MitchellLabour

Mark GriffinLabour

Siobhan McMahonLabour

Richard LyleSNP

Example• In Cowdenbeath in 2011 SP election, Helen Eadie won more

votes than her rivals. She therefore become the constituency MSP.

• Under AMS, Cowdenbeath is part of the Mid Scotland and Fife region.

• In order to compensate the parties who had a decent number of votes across the wider region, list seats are allocated according to the proportion of vote each party receives.

• End result Helen Eadie is the constituency MSP and there are an additional 7 MSPs for the region.

• If a constituent in Cowdenbeath has an issue in the area that needs the MSPs attention they could got to Helen Eadie to do something.

• In theory they could also approach a ‘list’ MSP, such as Murdo Fraser, a Conservative MSP for the Fife region.

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Was I successful? • Identify the voting system used in the SP elections.

• Describe how the voting system works.

• Identify the difference between different MSPs