Tactical voting and the British election

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Is all the talk of tactical voting in the British general election just that – all talk? seanwhelanRTE takes a look at what the ramifications of a tactical vote could mean

There has been a lot of talk about tactical voting in the British general election - there are even apps and websites to help people vote tactically.Or has Brexit become such a dominant issue in British politics that voters will consider using all kinds of means - including tactical voting - to ensure their side of the Brexit argument wins the election?

"And the other way around as well - Brexit party voters are willing to consider Conservatives and the Greens and Lib Dems are willing to consider Labour."It needs knowledge of the last election result - in particular, who finished second. And that often means the winners get less than 50% of the vote. Which in turn means that a party can win a majority in parliament without getting anywhere near a majority of the votes cast.So David Cameron got 36.9% of the vote in 2015, but won 51% of the seats in parliament - 331 - giving him a majority of 13.

Yet they are suggesting a Conservative majority - and a big one in the case of the large scale MRP poll published ten days ago. Another tactical voting site - Remain United - set up by anti-Brexit litigant Gina Miller, focuses on 36 seats, highlighting how tactical voting could unseat prominent Brexiteers like Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab, and former leader Iain Duncan Smith.

But this majority must come together to back a single candidate in order to oust the Conservative. And organising that is a lot harder than it sounds . A more subtle form of tactical voting is being attempted by online platforms like Swap My Vote.Uk, which attempts to match voters in one constituency where their preferred candidate has no chance of winning, with voters in another constituency who have the opposite problem.

The British Election Survey has been asking people about the sources of information they use to make election decisions. "And then we followed up with asking them where you're getting your information from, and only about 6% of voters mentioned tactical voting websites. So it's a pretty minority pursuit, going on these websites, even though they've received a lot of attention in the media".

But the survey data finds that the big switch may have already happened - back in 2017 - and the dividing issue was Brexit. But, in the other constituency, where there wasn't a Brexit party candidate, it's clearly going to be Tory. And so the deal that Farage sprung by saying we won't stand against you, is not that helpful to them because they're not so much stealing hardcore Labour votes as all the other people in the constituency who may have left Labour, a long time ago.

 

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seanwhelanRTE 'Tactical or Strategic' Voting isn't usually a good tactic as it relys heavily on Higher Voter turnout which depending on the Riding isn't Guarenteed. Remember Torys Always Vote & Always Vote Tory. So in many Areas this will B a huge factor. Try to narrow focus on close polls.

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