scotlandisdifferent

I left a few points hanging in my previous post . One was that AMS, being a proportional system, makes tactical voting impossible. Tactical voting, under a first-past-the-post system, is where your preferred party is polling third, with the two despised enemies neck-and-neck at the top: you vote for the enemy you despise less, because at least it will keep out the other scum. But under AMS, where parties with even 4% of the vote get seats, voting for the less-despised enemy simply gives them a better chance of a seat, and reduces your own party's chances of winning one. Another complication is how we should properly refer to the two votes that you have under the AMS system, and I sidestepped this issue by calling one the 'constituency' vote (which is not controversial) and the other the 'second vote'. However, even 'second vote' won't do, because the ballot paper could well ask for your constituency vote in its right-hand column, and what I've called...

Looking at blogs and Twitter, I see a disturbing lack of knowledge about how the Holyrood voting system works. Even the basic fact that you have two votes seems incomprehensible to some voters. Given that the next Holyrood election will be upon us in or before Spring 2021, and is likely to be crucial for independence, readers might welcome this short 'Voting for Dummies' guide. 1. You have two votes. One is called your 'constituency' vote, and elects the MSP for your constituency. It operates under the first-past-the-post system (FPTP). We're all thoroughly familiar with that, so it needs no further comment. 2. Your second vote has various names - your 'regional' vote, your 'list' vote, your 'second preference vote' - but they're all unsatisfactory, so for the moment let's just call it 'your second vote'. 3. Your two votes are votes for different things. With your constituency vote, you vote for a person, the person you want t...