Additional Member System Explained

In the last instalment of the Electoral System series we have the Additional Member System.

It can be called Mixed Member Proportional System, but it is the exact same process. We have a video in this series, but unfortunately no general election projection. If someone finds one and tweets it to me @MrThomasHistory I would be more than happy to add it in! Read the previous instalment, Single Transferable Vote Explained, if you haven't already.

Additional Member System

The Additional Member System is a proportional system of election used for the Scottish Parliament and Welsh Assembly. Each voter receives two votes on election day. The first they use to elect a member from their constituency under a FPTP system (i.e. in the constituency, the candidate with the most votes takes the seat) The second vote is used for a party. Once the votes are counted the second votes come into play. Parties receive additional members to help top up their seat allocations in the assembly or parliament to match the voting percentages which they received. This works to even out the votes to seats calculation and make the election more fair.