First Pass the Post-Voting System

First Past the Post Essay

First Pass the Post voting system is a single-winner voting system used to elect members of parliament. This voting method is also used in constituencies which is sometime called an exhaustive counting system where one member is elected at a time and the process repeated until the number of vacancies is filled. The most common system, is first-past-the-post. In this voting system the single winner is the person with the most votes, so there is no requirement that the winner has to gain an absolute majority of votes. The term first past the post became about because of horse racing, where the winner of the race is the first to pass a particular point after which all other runners automatically lose. There is, however, no "post" that the winning candidate must pass in order to win, as the winning candidate is required only to have received the highest number of votes in his or her favour. This results in the alternative name sometimes being "farthest past the post".
First Past the Post voting is used for local and national elections. In single winner voting, each voter is allowed to vote for only one candidate, and the winner of the election is whichever candidate represents a majority, that is, whoever received the largest number of votes. This makes the voting system among the simplest of all voting systems for voters and vote counting officials. In an election for a Prime Minister, each voter in a given geographically-defined constituency votes for one candidate from a list of candidates competing to represent that district. Under the plurality system, the winner of the election acts as representative of the entire electoral district, and serves with representatives of other electoral districts.
Britain, uses single-member constituency as the base for national general elections. Each constituency chooses one member to go to parliament and then the candidate that gets the most votes goes, whether they reach a majority or not. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland use the first past the post system for general elections in the UK, but use versions of proportional representation for local elections and European elections.
However, sometimes voters are pressured to vote for one of the two candidates they predict are most likely to win, even if their true preference is neither, because a vote for any other candidate will likely be wasted and have no impact on the final result. Also quite a lot of power is given to the media. As some voters will tend to believe the media's predictions as to who the leading contenders are likely to be in the election. Also the system may promote votes against instead of votes for each standing MP. Entire campaigns have been organised with the aim of voting against the Conservative party by voting either Labour or Liberal Democrat. For example, in a constituency held by the Conservatives, with the Liberal Democrats as the second place party and the Labour Party in third, Labour supporters might be urged to vote for the Liberal Democrat candidate rather than their own candidate on the basis that Labour supporters would prefer an MP from a competing left party than a Conservative one. Similarly there may be situations in a Labour/Libe Dem constituency where the Conservatives are third, Conservative voters may be encouraged or tempted to vote Lib Dem to defeat Labour.
First past the post tends to reduce the number of political parties to a greater extent than most other methods do, making it more likely that a single party will hold a majority of legislative seats. In the Proportional voting system, as fewer choices are offered to voters, voters may vote for a candidate although they disagree with them, because they disagree even more with their opponents. Consequently, candidates will less closely reflect the views of those who vote for them. Furthermore, one-party rule is more likely to lead to radical changes in government policy even though the changes are favoured only by a minimum of the voters, whereas a multi-party system usually require greater consensus in order to make dramatic changes in policy.
Also there can be a big problem with wasted votes. These are votes cast for losing candidates or votes cast for winning candidates in excess of the number required for victory. For example, in the General Election of 2005, nearly half of all votes were cast for losing candidates and nearly 20% were excess votes - a total of 70% wasted votes. This is perhaps the biggest criticism of a First Past the Post voting system, that a large majority of votes may play no part in determining the outcome.
The arguments for a First Past the Post voting system rely on the preservation of the "one person, one vote" principle. We continue to use the first-past-the-post electoral system for general elections, and for local government elections. Changes to the system have been proposed, and alternatives were suggested in the late 1990s. After the forming of a new coalition government in 2010, it was announced as part of the coalition agreement that a referendum would be held on changing the voting system. The referendum was held in 2011 and the majority of British voters decided against the alternative voting system. Due to this, it’s obvious that the majority believe in First Past the Post, and therefore it should stay.