“We have MPs enjoying power without any real

mandate and millions of voters who’ve never made a

difference, election after election. It’s time we turned
the page on the politics of the nineteenth century and
this is that chance”
Ashley Dé, Electoral Reform Society

“I support AV for the House of Commons

and will campaign for it.”
Ed Miliband, Labour Party Leader

Questions and Answers

In May 2011, there will be a referendum asking
whether we should change the way we elect MPs Q: Is AV complicated?
to parliament. There will still be one MP for A: No, just write ‘1’ next to your favourite candidate,
each constituency; the change is to the way we ‘2’ next to your 2nd choice, ‘3’ next to your third and
so on. It’s easy.
cast our votes. The choice will be the current
system, called First Past the Post or a new Q: Can I carry on voting for just one person?
system called Alternative Vote. A: Yes if you wish. Just write ‘1’ next to the person
you want to vote for.
First Past The Post is a good way of choosing
Q: Is AV proportional?
between 2 candidates but modern elections
often have 6 or more people to choose from. A: No, AV gives a fairer choice to voters but it is not
PR.
This leads to wasted votes, safe seats, negative
‘smear’ campaigning and tactical voting where Q: Will AV mean extremist parties are more likely to
people have to choose between the candidate win?
they really want and one they think most likely A: No, because they are unlikely to win many 2nd or
3rd preferences. Moderate candidates with broader
to defeat someone else. It doesn’t give voters a
appeal are more likely to win.
big enough say and it isn’t always fair.
“To ensure that every MP is supported by the majority
AV solves these problems by letting you number of their constituents voting at each election, we will hold
candidates in order of preference. There’s no a referendum on introducing the Alternative Vote for
need to vote tactically as you give your favourite elections to the House of Commons.”
candidate your first preference and your tactical Labour Party Manifesto 2010
choice second preference. Negative
“AV is a system that allows the voters to list the
campaigning doesn’t work because candidates candidates in order of preference, and reflects their
need to earn second preferences to win. Instead choices much more fairly than first past the post.”
they’ll have to tell you what they’ll do, not how Martin Bell, Journalist
bad the others are.
Who Supports AV?
The point of AV is the winner will have more AV has wide non-partisan as well as cross party
support. Groups like Take Back Parliament and the
than 50% of the vote so will have wide support Electoral Reform Society are in favour of AV and it is
in your local area. official Labour Party policy as well as having support
from some Conservatives, UKIP, the Greens and the
AV is a fairer, more open way of voting and it’s
Liberal Democrats.
simple.
Where to find out more:
Say YES to AV on 5th May! Blog: http://yestofairervotes.wordpress.com/
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/b6E02L
Prepared by Colin Green and Promoted by Chris Burgess, 14 Appleby Close, Kings Heath, Birmingham B14 6PA