AV, or Alternative Voting, has been a little confusing for people and the decision whether or not to vote for this new system is a pretty important one. In view of this, I telephoned UKIP’s head office to ask if they supported AV against the ‘first past the post’ method used at the present time. They told me that, although AV isn’t a perfect way of counting votes, it is better than the present system. With AV people have a chance to list all those they would like to see get in, even if their first choice doesn’t get enough votes, the others still stand a chance, (i.e. in a list of 1 to 5 candidates of your choice, number 1 would be your favourite to win the seat and the others your alternative choices, should number 1 not get enough votes, the votes for the others are then counted). The person voted for must get 50% of the overall votes to be elected, so if they don’t get that many, the votes for the second most popular candidate are counted and the same applies, they must get 50% of the votes to get in. This is carried on until one of the people listed get the right percentage. This gives parties like UKIP a fairer crack of the whip. However, in respect of their fantastic success in Barnsley, UKIP will most probably be first on the list with many people at the next election should AV take effect or not. The Conservatives for one seem very rattled at this type of voting getting in and this says a lot about how worried they must be that UKIP will finally win, as they will at last be on a level playing field.
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