{"id":4539,"date":"2020-03-09T15:28:18","date_gmt":"2020-03-09T15:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/?p=4539"},"modified":"2020-03-09T15:31:29","modified_gmt":"2020-03-09T15:31:29","slug":"unpicking-the-peoples-parliament-heres-how-many-votes-went-ignored-in-your-region","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/unpicking-the-peoples-parliament-heres-how-many-votes-went-ignored-in-your-region\/","title":{"rendered":"Unpicking the \u2018People\u2019s Parliament\u2019: Here\u2019s how many votes went ignored in your region"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"row flexible-block\">\n<div class=\"col-xs-12 wysiwyg\">\n<p>Last week we revealed how many votes went ignored in December\u2019s general election: 22.6m ballots did not count towards electing an MP.<\/p>\n<p>But behind the headline figures are people\u2019s voices across the country being systematically silenced by Westminster\u2019s winner-takes-all voting system. That system affects people\u2019s representation in different ways across the UK.<\/p>\n<p>Research for the ERS\u2019 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/latest-news-and-research\/publications\/the-2019-general-election-voters-left-voiceless\/\"><em>Voters left Voiceless: The 2019 General Election<\/em><\/a>\u00a0report shows some regions saw considerably high levels of votes ignored.<\/p>\n<p>For example, the East of England topped the table, with 74% of votes &#8211; 2.2 million &#8211; not contributing to the election result. This was followed by London, where 2.7 million voters (73%) of voters were ignored.<\/p>\n<p>Why? Under Westminster\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/voting-systems\/types-of-voting-system\/first-past-the-post\/\">First Past the Post<\/a> system \u2013 among the least democratic voting system there is \u2013 all votes not cast for the one winner in each seat go to waste. Across 650 seats, that\u2019s millions of votes being buried by the \u2018winner-takes-all\u2019 politics of Parliament. It might work for horse racing, but for national elections it contributes to polarisation and distrust on a dangerous scale.<\/p>\n<p>But as well as votes not cast for the \u2018winning\u2019 candidate going to waste, votes cast <em>for <\/em>the winning candidate above what they need are also discarded. These \u2018surplus\u2019 votes would not go to waste under a fair, proportional voting system like the Single Transferable Vote used in Ireland.<\/p>\n<h2>Let\u2019s look at the figures by nation and region<\/h2>\n<p><strong>By nation<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/1466225\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p><strong>By English region<\/strong><\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-chart\" data-src=\"visualisation\/1466355\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/latest-news-and-research\/publications\/the-2019-general-election-voters-left-voiceless\/\">Full tables are in the appendix of the report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As you can see, just 29% of votes in England counted towards the result, and less than a third (32%) in Scotland and Wales respectively. The statistics within England paint a similarly bleak picture.<\/p>\n<p>What kind of a political system disenfranchises voters on such a mass scale? The UK is the only country in Europe to still use this unjust way of picking MPs \u2013 and it\u2019s time for change.<\/p>\n<p>Ignored votes aren\u2019t numbers: they are millions of ordinary voters like you and me who want their voice to be heard. Sadly, Parliament today represents a startling small proportion of those who voted. Without moving to proportional representation, this problem is going to repeat itself time and again.<\/p>\n<p>Whichever region or nation you live in, when only one party stands a chance in a seat, the issues we care about are easy to ignore. It\u2019s time that voters are heard, wherever they are in the UK. People are tired of having to choose tactics over policies &#8211; we need a Parliament that represents all of the voters cast in elections, not just a select few.<\/p>\n<p><span class='bctt-click-to-tweet'><span class='bctt-ctt-text'><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.electoral-reform.org.uk%2Funpicking-the-peoples-parliament-heres-how-many-votes-went-ignored-in-your-region%2F&#038;text=Whichever%20region%20or%20nation%20you%20live%20in%2C%20when%20only%20one%20party%20stands%20a%20chance%20in%20a%20seat%2C%20the%20issues%20we%20care%20about%20are%20easy%20to%20ignore.%20&#038;via=electoralreform&#038;related=electoralreform' target='_blank'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Whichever region or nation you live in, when only one party stands a chance in a seat, the issues we care about are easy to ignore.  <\/a><\/span><a href='https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.electoral-reform.org.uk%2Funpicking-the-peoples-parliament-heres-how-many-votes-went-ignored-in-your-region%2F&#038;text=Whichever%20region%20or%20nation%20you%20live%20in%2C%20when%20only%20one%20party%20stands%20a%20chance%20in%20a%20seat%2C%20the%20issues%20we%20care%20about%20are%20easy%20to%20ignore.%20&#038;via=electoralreform&#038;related=electoralreform' target='_blank' class='bctt-ctt-btn'rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Click To Tweet<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p>These fresh findings are another indictment of Westminster\u2019s current one-party-takes-all system. Under the current system, millions of voters across the country are left effectively voiceless \u2013 with all votes not cast for the one winner in each seat going effectively ignored.<\/p>\n<p>It is no wonder trust in politics is at rock bottom. The vast majority of people\u2019s votes are being systematically ignored by a voting system that is morally and politically bankrupt.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s the way forward? We have to make seats in Parliament match how people want to vote, through a fair, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.electoral-reform.org.uk\/voting-systems\/types-of-voting-system\/single-transferable-vote\/\">proportional electoral system<\/a>. Until we make votes count equally, parties will ignore areas they think are \u2018unwinnable\u2019. Nowhere should be seen as a \u2018write-off\u2019 by politicians.<\/p>\n<p>Instead, let\u2019s reform Westminster\u2019s broken system and ensure real choice \u2013 and a clear voice \u2013 for people across the country.<\/p>\n<p><em>Megan Collins is a placement student at the ERS from the University of Nottingham.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p>        <a href=\"http:\/\/action.electoral-reform.org.uk\/page\/3782\/petition\/1?ea.tracking.id=yi2xbabf\" class=\"btn\">Sign our petition for a fair voting system for the House of Commons<\/a>    <\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"row flexible-block\">\n<div class=\"col-xs-12\">\n<div class='gf_browser_chrome gform_wrapper' id='gform_wrapper_2' >\n<div id='gf_2' class='gform_anchor' tabindex='-1'><\/div>\n<form method='post' enctype='multipart\/form-data' target='gform_ajax_frame_2' id='gform_2'  action='\/wp-admin\/post.php#gf_2'>\n<div class='gform_heading'>\n<h3 class='gform_title'>Enjoy this blog? 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But behind the headline figures are people\u2019s voices across the country being systematically silenced by Westminster\u2019s winner-takes-all voting system. That system affects people\u2019s representation in different ways across the UK. Research for the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":4540,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[5,405,422],"class_list":["post-4539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-electoral-reform","tag-first-past-the-post","tag-ge2019","tag-voters-left-voiceless"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4539"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/electoral-reform.org.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}