First past the.. Wait.. where's the post?

Britain is such a democratic nation, isn't it? I mean, look at our voting system. Whoever gets the most votes wins, how on earth could it possibly be fairer than that?

In reality first past the post isn't actually fair at all. In fact it's possibly the unfairest voting system of them all. 

The thing that baffles me most is the name... because there is no post. Candidates don't actually have to get past any point at all in order to be elected. Say there were 4 candidates competing to become an MP in your constituency, the MP could be elected with as little as 25.1% of the vote, leaving 74.9% a bit miffed (yay maths!). If you consider the average 35% of people who don't bother voting either, that doesn't give the MP a lot of legitimacy. 

There is also a staggering difference between the percentage of votes a party gets and how that is changed into seats in parliament. In 2010 23% of the population voted for the Lib Dems.. Guess what proportion of the seats they got? 9%. So through first past the post a party which was voted for by nearly a quarter of the population didn't even get 10% of the seats in the Commons... Yeah, sounds fair.  

But the main thing which winds me up about this system of voting? It means that unless you vote for the 2 main parties, possibly 3, your vote doesn't count at all. In 2010 this meant that the 10million people who didn't vote Labour, Conservative or Lib Dem might as well have stayed at home (unless you live in the Brighton Pavilion constituency and voted Green- go you!). It's no secret I'm a socialist and, sadly, there is no point in me voting at all. My constituency has voted Conservative since the first world war and it's unlikely to ever change hands, tough luck if you support anyone else- you have no voice. 

For those who actually noticed that there was a referendum to change the voting system to AV a couple of years ago, that wouldn't have changed things either. AV would have been a step in the right direction because you can state a second preference but it still produces very similar results to FPTP.

There are loads of different ways to elect people but most have only heard of first past the post. If you're interested in the different systems (there's no shame in being a politics geek!) the electoral reform society explains them all here. My favourite is the single transferable vote :).