Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill

16: Clause 1, page 1, line 7, leave out subsections (3) and (4) and insert— ““(3) The question that is to appear on the ballot papers is— At present, the UK uses the ““first past the post”” system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. It is proposed that the system should be changed. Please rank the following options in order of preference. Should the UK use: (a) the first past the post system; (b) the alternative vote system; (c) a proportional vote system? (4) In Wales, a Welsh version of the question is also to appear on the ballot papers. (5) Each voter will be asked to mark the ballot paper with— (a) the number 1 next to the option that is the voter’s first preference (or, as the case may be, the only option for which the voter wishes to vote); (b) if the voter wishes, the number 2 next to the option that is the voter’s second preference, and so on. (6) The voter may mark as many preferences (up to the number of options) as the voter wishes. (7) Votes shall be allocated to options in accordance with voters’ first preferences and, if one option has more votes than the other options put together, that option shall be deemed to have been selected. (8) If not, the option with the fewest votes will be eliminated and that option’s votes shall be dealt with as follows— (a) each vote cast by a voter who also ranked one or more of the remaining options shall be reallocated to that remaining option or (as the case may be) to the one that the voter ranked the highest. (b) any votes not reallocated shall play no further part in the counting. (9) After the reallocation of votes and recounting, the option with the most votes shall be deemed to have been selected.””