How does your vote work on Thursday’s European Elections?

The EDA research team has found that most of the people they talk to haven’t a clue as to how the European Election works. When you read this you may not be  entirely surprised. But it is important for the democratic process that you do understand before you get to the ballot box.
The voting system used is a form of proportional representation called the – “closed list”.

Who am I voting for?

Between three and ten Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) to represent your region. The UK is divided into regions, one for each of Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales and nine covering England. Each region is allocated a number of MEPs according to its population. Our region is the South West and we are represented by six MEPs.

How do I vote?

Well, always read the instructions for filling in the ballot paper carefully, even if you have voted before. The ballot paper lists political parties and independent candidates. Under each party name is a list of candidates who wish to represent that party. Simply put an X (a cross) next to the party or independent candidate that you wish to vote for. If you make a mistake then you can ask the polling staff to give you another ballot paper. You may also be voting in other elections on the same day. In our region (super constituency) we have no independent candidates but we have eight parties to choose from. Remember with no independents we cannot vote for a candidate, only a party. We have one vote although we are electing six MEPs.

So who is elected? (Take this slowly- it is not quite a complicated as it sounds).

In a given region the allocated seats are awarded using a quota system in successive rounds of counting, until all MEPs are elected. For each round the quota for that round is the total number of votes received by a party (or independent candidate) divided by the number of seats already gained in that region +1. So, for a party with no seats (and for the first round) the number of votes received is divided by one, and so stays the same. If the party already has one seat then its number of votes is divided by two, if it has two seats it is divided by three, and so on. This means that the more seats you have already won, the harder it is to gain extra seats, so the overall allocation of seats is more proportional to the number of votes received. The first seat that a party wins goes to the first person on its list, the second seat to the second person, and so on, until the party has either not won any more seats or has run out of names on its list. An independent candidate is treated as though he or she were a party with only one name on its list. –

See more at:
http://www.aboutmyvote.co.uk/how_do_i_vote/voting_systems/european_parliament_elections.aspx#sthash.dR8dQIRf.dpuf

What are the Eight Parties standing and who are their candidates?

A pdf of the list of candidates can be found at:
http://www.europarl.org.uk/en/european_elections/candidates2014.html