The Electoral Commission has just published copies of the booklets it will be distributing to every household in the UK as part of its public information campaign for May’s AV referendum.
In addition to the England, Scotland and Wales booklets below, there are also versions for Northern Ireland and in Welsh. Both of these, along with details of the research the Electoral Commission carried out in putting the booklets together, are on the Electoral Commission website.
Referendum Booklet From Electoral Commission – England
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14 Comments
Page 8 seems to imply that if AV is passed by the referendum, but parliament rejects the new boundaries in 2013, then this will also overturn the result of the referendum. Is this correct?
More fun and games today from the keen minds who gave us the £250m costing. In their latest list of Labour supporters, as well as a big (now ermine-toting) chunk of the Spring 2003 cabinet, with their obvious history of excellent judgement, in come 3 more MPs but out go 14 (including the 5 previously removed).
Thanks mark. Do you have any idea how much input the Parties & Campaigns had into this ? Was there a draft pamphlet circulated ?
On first reading this looks heavily biased to the No side.
Heavily biased how? It looks pretty neutral to me.
(I’m voting Yes, by the way, before someone accuses me of being biased towards No myself.)
paul barker – Can you elaborate on that ‘heavily biasd’ assessment. Have to say I can’t see it myself, but I’d be interested in your follow-up.
@Andrew Ducker and @Duncan
I guess he might be referring to the fact that the booklet states that you can win an AV election with less than 50% of the vote – refuting a yes campaign claim while the booklet doesn’t refute any no campaign claims. Like counting machines, permanent coalition and so on.
Personally I don’t see that as a bias as mentioning that it is possible (albeit not that likely) for an AV election to be won with under 50% of the vote is appropriate when describing the system. Any refutal of the no campaigns would be going off on a tangent and regrettably are beyond the scope of the leaflet.
Oh, and as a clarification, I’m also a yes voter. Doing some campaigning when I have time too.
On the bias, while they point to the possibility of an AV election where the winner gets less than half the votes, they make no such comment about FPTP.
The more important bias is the way the AV section is dragged out, fitting with The NO Campaigns descriptions of AV as complex & long-winded.
I agree with Paul, kind of. I mean, it’s not so biased that I would take to the streets or write to The Times, but it does kind of portray AV as complex and arcane, and from reading UK Polling Report et al. it is true that little differences in the question/the presentation do make a difference.
I’m surprised that their AV example has A winning, a win for B would demonstrate more clearly why the system are actually different.
The document states
“At the end of the review, the UK Parliament will vote on implementing the new boundaries. If the new boundaries are implemented, the ‘alternative vote’system will be used for all future elections to the House of Commons.”
That implies that AV would be used in any byelections between the parliamentary vote and the next general election. Is this true?
James S – excellent point. It’s a decent leaflet apart from that.
Those who think the leaflet is biased in favour of the No camp have obviously been swallowing too many factoids from the Yes camp.
@Joe Otten: The 2013 vote should just be a formality, though of course it will give LDV writers an opportunity to write endless articles slagging off Labour MPs for voting against the bill!!
Simon G: AV won’t be used in any by-elections that might happen between that date and the next general election. It comes into force at the general election.
Joe: Yes, though the political impact is to tie the Tories in to not subverting the referendum result – because if they try to do so then they lose the boundary changes they have been particularly keen on. It’s an extra guarantee against them deciding to walk away from the agreement.