Voting power is a postcode lottery, reveals new website

As election season begins, the unequal distribution of power in the electoral system is revealed today, Friday 9 April 2010, at a new website set up by web designer Martin Petts using data from independent think-tank nef (the new economics foundation).

The Voter Power Index (www.voterpower.org.uk) reveals that under the UK’s highly unrepresentative first-past-the-post system, not everyone’s vote is of equal influence:

• Under the current system, voters in very safe seats have the equivalent of one hundredth of a vote, while voters in the most variable swing seats get the power of up to 1.31 votes each.  In other words voters living in the most influential postcodes have over 500 times as much power as those living in the least influential.
• The average UK voter has 0.25 of a vote.
• In the 2005 election, the majority of voters did not vote for the MP that represents them (over 52%). This means that over 14 million votes were effectively discarded. 

“If electoral officials announced that they were going to take away the ballot papers of the vast majority of the country and give them to a privileged minority, people would be justifiably outraged.” said Nic Marks, nef fellow and statistician who devised the Index. “But we need to realise that this unequal distribution of power is what already happens in our inefficient electoral system. A select few in marginal seats are given the power of kingmakers. This is not only profoundly undemocratic, it’s also fostering political apathy. People in safe seats are losing interest in voting because they know their vote probably won’t be counted. It’s about time we realised the absurdity of the system and made some radical changes.”

The website ranks each of the UK’s 650 constituencies according to their power. It also allows visitors to see how many votes are effectively lost in the first-past-the-post system. Because the winner of a constituency takes all, those who did not vote for the winning candidate have their voices silenced.

“I undertook this personal project because I became incensed that my voice was not being heard in this election, just because of where I happen to live," said Martin Petts, the developer of the website."In this first 'internet election' concerned citizens such as myself are able to participate directly in the debate, despite the best efforts of politicians to ignore those of us who don't happen to live in the relatively small number of marginal seats."

It is clear UK needs to find an alternative system which is fairer to voters and to parties. But a decision like this is too important to leave up to politicians, who have a vested interest in maintaining the status quo. Labour’s recent call for a referendum on the Alternative Vote system demonstrates that politicians will use the question of electoral reform for short term political gain.

Therefore, nef is calling for a Citizens’ Convention to bring together a representative sample of people from across the UK to look at the options for electoral reform and formulate a proposal that can be put to the public in a referendum.

Visit: www.voterpower.org.uk