The Three Plus One Electoral System

I am no fan of the UK Electoral System, the First Past The Post System.  Too many voices are not heard. Unless you live in a marginal constituency, your vote will not be central in determining who will form the next Government. Britain held a referendum in 2011 on a proposal to change the electoral system to the Alternative Vote System.  The Alternative Vote System (AV) enables the voter to rank constituency candidates in order of preference.  Many critics made the point during the referendum campaign that AV allows voters of minor parties a few bites of the cherry, whilst it should also be pointed out that pro-electoral reform politicians really supported another system known as the Single Transferable Vote.

WHAT I PROPOSE IS SOMETHING NEW- THE THREE PLUS ONE SYSTEM.

The main principles are as follows:

1. Constituencies would become multi-member constituencies, whereby four MPs would be returned in each constituency.
2. Political parties would be allowed to field up to 3 candidates per constituency.  There would be no limit on Independent candidates.
3. Voters would continue to mark an X for their choice of candidate.
4. The first three MPs would be elected on their individual share of the vote.
5. The fourth candidate would be elected on a more proportional basis.   The successful candidate for the fourth seat would be the candidate from the winning party (or the list of independent candidates) who has the highest individual share of the vote out of that party's remaining candidates.

So how would the fourth member be elected for each constituency? Let me give you a few examples.

The first example sees Party A, Party B, and Party C all return an MP on individual share of the vote.  The fourth MP would be determined by which Party has polled the most votes.

The second example sees Party A return 2 MPs and Party B return 1 MP on individual share of the vote. The first question to ask is which party has polled the most votes?  If it is Party A, we would then ask does Party A have more than 50% of the Constituency Vote.  Party A will get a third MP returned if they achieve that 50% threshold.

In a third example, we have the same scenario of Party A returning 2 MPs and Party B returning 1 MP. On this occasion that 50% threshold is not met, even though Party A has still polled the most votes. So we would now ask if Party C has polled more votes than Party B, yet somehow failed to win a seat on individual share of the vote. If Party C has polled more votes than Party B, then Party C would secure the fourth seat on a proportional basis. If Party C has not polled more votes than Party B, then the candidate with the fourth largest individual share of the vote will be returned as the fourth MP, irrespective of party affiliation.

For the fourth example, we will once again use the scenario where Party A has returned 2 MPs and Party B has returned 1 MP.  Again we will ask which party has polled the most votes?  This time Party B actually has the largest share of the vote, and will secure the fourth MP on a proportional basis.

The Three Plus One Electoral System is designed to hear those voices which are currently not heard under the First Past The Post Electoral System.  Furthermore, by continuing to mark an X against the voter's preferred candidate, it is very voter friendly!