Thursday 5th May 2011

As you enter the polling booth today, you're making history. It's only the second time in the history of the UK that a referendum has been put to the country - the last time was in 1975 when we voted on whether to join Europe.

Todays will focus on the voting system and whether the public has the appetite to change it from 'first past the post' to the 'Alternative vote (AV)' system. Everyone who is registered to vote is eligible to take part, subject to the usual voting criteria.

The referendum was part of the deal struck as the Coalition Government was formed last year and has been a long held dream of the Lib Dem party. The idea had been mooted for years though in the lifetimes of various parliaments and AV was even mentioned on the Labour Party manifesto in 2010.

Possible reform has polarised opinion with supporters of the 'YES' campaign saying that AV will be much fairer and will mean that there will be fewer safe seats and therefore MP's will have to work harder for their constituents.

The 'NO' campaigners say that the system would cost millions that the country cannot afford. They also say that only 3 countries currently use the system and that it is unpopular in those.

Voters will face one question as they vote, "At present, the UK uses the 'first past the post' system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the 'alternative vote' system be used instead?"

The final result is expected to be announced on Friday 6th May by the
Chief Counting Officer after all regions have declared their results.



So what is it and how does it work?

Currently we mark our ballot papers with a single X denoting the candidate we wish to vote for. Under the Alternative Voting system the voter has the chance to rank the candidates on offer.

The voter will puts a '1' by their first-preference candidate, and can continue, if they want to, to put a '2' by their second-preference, and so on, until there are no candidates they wish to support left, or the names simply run out.

After the first round of counting if a candidate receives a majority of first-preference votes (more people put them as number one than all the rest combined), then they are elected.

If no candidate gains a majority on first preferences, then the second-preference votes of the candidate who finished last on the first count are redistributed. This process is repeated until someone gets over 50 per cent.

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