Elections

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  • Created by: WiseApple
  • Created on: 12-04-16 15:29
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  • Elections
    • Who can vote?
      • Everyone over 18
        • UK citizens abroad for 20 years
        • MHA 1983 sectionees
        • Prisoners
          • Violation of 4 ECHR rulings - still no change by Parliament
        • Electoral fraudsters (for five years)
        • Votes at 16 trialled during 2014 Scottish independence referendum - 85% turnout among 16-24 year olds
          • Labour and Liberal Democrats failed to introduce for 2016 EU referendum due to government use of financial instrument to prevent defeat in HoL
            • All mainstream parties support Votes at 16 except Conservative
              • June 2015 - 100,000 strong petition from Greens, Labour, Lib Dems and others presented calling for Votes at 16
      • UK citizens + ROI and Commonwealth residents in UK
        • Everyone over 18
          • UK citizens abroad for 20 years
          • MHA 1983 sectionees
          • Prisoners
            • Violation of 4 ECHR rulings - still no change by Parliament
          • Electoral fraudsters (for five years)
          • Votes at 16 trialled during 2014 Scottish independence referendum - 85% turnout among 16-24 year olds
            • Labour and Liberal Democrats failed to introduce for 2016 EU referendum due to government use of financial instrument to prevent defeat in HoL
              • All mainstream parties support Votes at 16 except Conservative
                • June 2015 - 100,000 strong petition from Greens, Labour, Lib Dems and others presented calling for Votes at 16
      • Voters must register individually to vote - changed in 2015 from postal household method
        • Up to 800,000 voters lost by not re-registering
          • Govt: Most ever signed up at 2015 GE
    • How does voting work?
      • 650 MPs in Parliament -constituencies
        • Voters vote for candidate to be MP in Parliament
          • Safe seats - one party has a large majority of votes and cannot be easily lost - usually core support for parties
            • Bootle - Labour
            • Henley - Oxfordshire
            • Senior party members are sometimes "parachuted" into safe seats to ensure that they can carry on in Parliament and/or government if their former seat becomes unsafe.
          • Marginal seats - narrowly held seats that can be lost by a small swing of voters - usually election deciders
            • Telford - Conservative
            • CIty of Chester - Labour
        • Party with most MPs in Commons becomes government
          • Majority one party government usual - more seats than all others combined
            • 1974 Feburary
            • 2010 coalition
        • Planned to be 600 - 2010 coalition agreement + 2015 Conservative manifesto pledge (in progress)
          • Blocked by Lib Dems over HoL reform filibuster by Tories
            • Resumed in 2015 by Cameron government
          • Would likely affect Labour most - inter-city exodus - more seats with less people in,mostly working class - Labour core group
        • Tactical voting - voters vote for parties other than their first choice to keep another party out when they cannot win.
          • ERS - 9 million would vote tactically in 2015 due to over and underaward of votes to parties with seats
          • Widescale tactical voting in 1997 by Labour/Lib Dem voters to defeat Conservatives - attributable to loss of Michael Portillo's seat.
    • Take place every 5 years - Fixed Term Parliament Act 2011 set fixed dates unlike previously -PM's discretion
      • Votes of No Confidence result in election being called immediately
    • Who can stand as a candidate?
      • Bankrupts, clergy, Peers, civil servants, judges, army officers
      • Anyone who can pay £500 (returned if 5% vote achieved) and is a UK, Commonwealth or ROI citizen
        • Must be nominated by 10 constituents
    • Boundary commission
      • Adjusted every 15 years due to population change by merging/creating constituencies
        • Based on decade-old population data(due to length of time to survey) so always outdated.
        • Creates Labour bias  due to failure to account for inner-city exodus
          • BUT neutralised in 2015 due to loss of Scottish seats to SNP creating Conservative bias

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