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For the voting system that was the subject of a referendum in the UK, see instant-runoff voting.

The alternative vote plus (AV+), or alternative vote top-up, is a semi-proportional voting system. AV+ was devised by the 1998 Jenkins Commission which first proposed the idea as a system that could be used for elections to the Parliament of the United Kingdom.[1]

AV+ a variant of the additional-member system which works in two parts: the "AV" part and the "plus" part. As in the alternative vote system, candidates are ranked numerically in order of preference. The important difference is that an additional group of members would be elected through regional party lists to ensure a degree of proportionality; in typical proposals, these members are 15–20% of the whole body. More specifically, each voter would get a second vote to elect a county or regional-level representative from a list of candidates of more than one person per party. The number of votes cast in this vote would decide how many representatives from that county or region would go on to parliament. In systems with an electoral threshold on regional seats, votes are transferred in order of voters' numerical preference until it puts a party above the threshold, or reaches a party already above.

Reaction in the UK

[edit]

Then Prime Minister Tony Blair issued a statement, saying that the report "makes a well-argued and powerful case for the system it recommends"[2] and that "it is very much a modification of the existing Westminster system, rather than any full blown PR system as practised in other countries." He also praised Lord Jenkins for his work and gave the recommendations a cautious welcome, pointing out in particular that change would help address the "complete absence of Conservative representation in Scotland", a reference to the then most recent election in which the Conservatives failed to win a single seat in Scotland, despite winning 17.5% of the Scottish vote.[3]

However, leading figures in the Cabinet at the time (such as Home Secretary Jack Straw, Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott, Chancellor Gordon Brown, and Margaret Beckett) and the Labour NEC, all strongly opposed reform of the voting system, and blocked change at that time.[citation needed]

The report was welcomed by the Liberal Democrats and the SNP, although at the time the Liberal Democrats remained largely committed to STV, but preferred AV+ to first-past-the-post.[4] The report was heavily criticised by the Conservative party, with leader William Hague branding its proposals "a dog's breakfast".

In a May 2009 article in The Times, Health Secretary Alan Johnson called for a referendum on the adoption of this system as part of the response to the 2009 parliamentary expenses scandal. In this piece he praised the system as "an elegant solution".[5] David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party, declared on May 26 that his party did not support the AV+ system, or any other form of proportional representation, as it would end up choosing a government "on the basis of secret backroom deals".[6]

In June 2009, it was reported by the BBC that the Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, was considering changing the electoral system as part of a package of constitutional reform.[7] In February 2010, the Labour government under Gordon Brown offered a Commons vote on a referendum for an alternative vote system, possibly manoeuvering for political positioning in case of a hung parliament following the general election on May 6.[8] In a BBC interview on Election Night 2010, Home Secretary Alan Johnson suggested he would like to see the AV+ system introduced if a deal with the Liberal Democrats became necessary.[9]

A national referendum on the Alternative Vote system was granted as part of the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition agreement,[10] but not AV+. The Jenkins Commission rejected plain AV on the basis that it did little to relieve disproportionality,[11] but favoured it over first-past-the-post as the basis for AV+.[12]

The referendum on AV was held on 5 May 2011. Voters rejected the proposed AV voting system by a vote of 68% to 32% in favour of retaining First Past the Post. The turnout of registered voters was 42%.

Properties

[edit]

AV+ has several properties which may be considered advantages or disadvantages based on ones views on how an electoral system should work and what effects it should produce. Common arguments in favour or against are similar to those relating to its component systems, AV and AMS.

  • Single-member constituencies would exist under the scheme, so every voter would have a local MP, but not all MPs would be elected in an SMD.
  • Because of compensation (additional seats), results would be more proportional result than FPTP or AV, but would still give a built-in advantage to the largest party and allow one-party rule during landslide years.[citation needed] Coalition governments, which include the opinions of multiple movements of the people, are more likely.
  • Would lessen the problems of "split voting" and the necessity of tactical voting.[citation needed]
  • Decreases the chances of "safe seats" and MPs holding seats for life.[citation needed]
  • MPs will have to secure 50% of votes to win a constituency seat - making them more accountable and working harder to win over a broader appeal.[citation needed] Limits the chances for extremists to gain power scraping in with minority support.[citation needed] The AV part shuts down the ability for local candidates to slip in with just a minority of the votes.
  • It is more complex than FPTP for voters and it might cost more to count the votes
  • It will lead to "two types of MP", as a majority would be linked directly to a constituency with a minority with a larger area overlapping the first group. This might weaken the psychological link between voters and their representatives.[citation needed]

See also

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References

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Alternative vote plus

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Alternative Vote Plus (AV+), or alternative vote top-up, is a semi-proportional electoral system that combines ranked-choice voting in single-member constituencies for the majority of seats with a supplementary allocation of additional members from party lists to improve overall proportionality.[1] Under AV+, voters rank candidates by preference for constituency representatives, comprising 80-85% of seats, while casting a separate vote for a party or candidate list to determine the remaining 15-20% of top-up seats, which are distributed regionally to compensate for disproportionalities in constituency results.[1] The system was devised by the Independent Commission on the Voting System, chaired by Roy Jenkins, in 1998 as a proposed alternative to the first-past-the-post system for UK parliamentary elections, aiming to retain local constituency representation while addressing the latter's tendency toward disproportionate outcomes.[2][3] Despite its recommendation for a referendum, AV+ was not implemented; instead, the 2011 UK referendum offered a choice between first-past-the-post and the pure alternative vote, with the latter rejected by 67.9% of voters.[3] AV+ has been critiqued for its limited top-up component, which provides only partial proportionality compared to fuller systems like the single transferable vote, potentially still allowing significant seat-vote distortions, though it offers greater balance than majoritarian methods alone.[1] No country has adopted AV+ for national elections, though it continues to feature in academic and reform discussions as a hybrid preserving candidate accountability with moderated proportionality.[1]

History

Origins in the Jenkins Commission

The Independent Commission on the Voting Systems, chaired by Lord Roy Jenkins, was established in December 1997 by Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government to investigate alternatives to the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system for House of Commons elections. This initiative responded to Labour's landslide in the 1 May 1997 general election, where the party captured 63 percent of seats (419 out of 659) with 43.2 percent of the vote share, while the Liberal Democrats secured just 7 percent of seats (46) despite 16.8 percent of votes, underscoring FPTP's tendency toward disproportionate results that favored large parties and marginalized smaller ones.[2] The Commission's report, released on 29 October 1998, proposed a mixed system dubbed "alternative vote top-up"—subsequently termed Alternative Vote Plus (AV+)—as superior to both pure AV and full proportional representation (PR). Under this design, 80-85 percent of seats would be filled via AV in single-member constituencies to retain local representation, with 15-20 percent as regional top-up seats drawn from closed party lists to adjust for overall proportionality; applied to the 659-seat Commons, this equated to roughly 527-560 AV seats and 99-132 top-ups, with one variant specifying 543 AV seats and 116 top-ups.[2] This formulation aimed to remedy FPTP's inequities without adopting pure PR, which the Commission critiqued for eroding the direct constituent-MP bond and fostering fragmented parliaments reliant on perpetual coalitions that could undermine decisive governance. Pure AV was dismissed as inadequate, with modeling showing it might amplify disproportionality for trailing parties like the Conservatives in 1997 scenarios, failing to deliver the broad fairness sought while still linking voters to specific representatives.[2]

Post-1998 Developments and UK Referendum Context

Following the publication of the Jenkins Commission's report on October 29, 1998, which recommended AV+ as a compromise between maintaining single-member constituencies and achieving greater proportionality, the Labour government under Prime Minister Tony Blair took no substantive steps toward implementation. Internal party divisions, particularly between reform advocates and those favoring retention of elements closer to first-past-the-post, stalled progress, with Home Secretary Jack Straw signaling a reluctance to commit to a referendum in late 1998.[4] The government's preference leaned toward the simpler Alternative Vote (AV) system, seen as less disruptive to Labour's constituency advantages, rather than AV+'s top-up mechanism for proportionality.[3] A 2000 white paper on modernizing government referenced electoral reform discussions but offered only vague nods to the Jenkins findings without endorsing AV+ or scheduling a vote, reflecting ongoing hesitation amid competing priorities like devolution referendums.[2] By 2001, under continued Labour rule, AV+ receded from active policy agendas, overshadowed by the party's electoral successes under existing rules and reluctance to alienate MPs reliant on safe seats. AV+ resurfaced peripherally in 2009–2010 amid hung parliament talks after the general election, where Liberal Democrats, historically supportive of proportional systems, pressed for reforms beyond AV during negotiations with both Labour and Conservatives. However, the resulting Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition agreement of May 11, 2010, prioritized a referendum solely on AV versus first-past-the-post, sidelining AV+ and fuller proportional representation options to secure cross-party consensus and avoid alienating Conservative MPs opposed to list-based top-ups.[5] The referendum, held on May 5, 2011, under the Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Act 2010, pitted AV against the status quo, excluding AV+ amid arguments that broader options would complicate voter choice and dilute focus. AV was rejected by 67.9% to 32.1% turnout of 42.2%, with post-referendum analysis from reform advocates suggesting AV+'s hybrid structure—preserving local links while addressing disproportionality—might have attracted wider support from skeptics of pure AV, but its omission stemmed from coalition compromises prioritizing simplicity over the Jenkins model's balance.[6][7]

Recent Advocacy and Proposals

Following the failure of the 2011 referendum on the Alternative Vote, advocacy for AV+ saw limited momentum in the ensuing decade, with occasional references in policy discussions rather than widespread political campaigns. A May 2010 report by the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) assessed AV+ alongside other systems like AV and the Single Transferable Vote, noting its potential to combine constituency representation with added proportionality via top-up seats, though the report ultimately endorsed the Additional Member System as superior for Westminster elections due to its balance of local accountability and overall fairness.[8][9] Renewed interest emerged in 2024 amid heightened scrutiny of first-past-the-post (FPTP) following the general election on July 4, which amplified vote-seat disparities across fragmented parties. Reform UK, led by Nigel Farage, received 14.3% of the national vote—approximately 4.1 million ballots—but won only five seats, prompting Farage to advocate AV+ in a June 25 interview as a targeted reform: 80% of seats elected via AV in single-member constituencies for direct representation, with 20% allocated as top-up list seats to approximate proportionality and mitigate FPTP's distortions without fully severing constituency links.[10] This proposal echoed the Jenkins Commission's original 80-20 framework while positioning AV+ as a pragmatic alternative to pure proportional representation, which Farage argued could undermine stable governance. The Liberal Democrats similarly revived AV+ support at their Autumn Conference in Brighton from September 14-18, 2024, passing a "Fair Votes Now" motion (F105) that explicitly endorsed the system for House of Commons elections. The motion described AV+ as enabling voters to rank constituency candidates under AV while using a separate party list vote for top-up members, aiming to deliver majority support in local seats alongside national proportionality to better reflect diverse voter preferences post-2024.[11][12] Despite these endorsements, AV+ has not advanced to legislative proposals or referenda as of late 2024, remaining a niche option amid broader calls for electoral change from groups like the Electoral Reform Society, which maintains AV+ descriptions emphasizing its retention of constituency MPs with compensatory seats to reduce disproportionality observed in recent FPTP outcomes.[1]

Mechanics of the System

Constituency Elections via Alternative Vote

In the Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) system, 80-85% of seats in the House of Commons—approximately 527 to 560 out of a total of around 659—are allocated through single-member constituency elections conducted under the Alternative Vote (AV).[2][1] This component preserves the direct linkage between members of Parliament and geographic constituencies, akin to the first-past-the-post (FPTP) system, while incorporating ranked preferences to ensure winners secure an absolute majority of support after vote transfers.[2] Voters mark their ballots by numbering candidates in order of preference for their local constituency representative, typically ranking as many or as few as desired. First-preference votes are tallied initially; if no candidate achieves more than 50% of valid votes, the lowest-polling candidate is eliminated, and their ballots are redistributed to the next indicated preference. This elimination and redistribution continues iteratively until one candidate attains a majority, with any exhausted ballots (lacking further preferences) discarded at each stage.[1][2] The process mitigates some tactical voting incentives present in FPTP, as voters can safely express a first preference for non-viable candidates without wasting their vote, though strategic ranking of subsequent preferences remains possible.[3] The Jenkins Commission, reporting in October 1998, designed this AV element to maintain local accountability and constituency representation while modestly enhancing proportionality over FPTP. Simulations of prior elections demonstrated that AV alone would narrow vote-seat disparities—for instance, reducing overrepresentation like Labour's 63% of seats on 43% of votes in the 1997 general election—without eliminating majoritarian outcomes or the constituency-MP bond.[2] This empirical rationale underscored AV's role in AV+ as a bridge between FPTP's familiarity and greater voter expression, though the Commission judged pure AV insufficiently proportional for the full chamber, prompting the top-up addition.[3]

Top-Up Mechanism for Proportionality

In the Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) system proposed by the Jenkins Commission, approximately 15-20% of seats, or about 100-130 in a 650-seat legislature, are allocated as top-up seats to mitigate the disproportionality inherent in the majoritarian Alternative Vote (AV) results from constituency elections.[2] These seats are distributed on a regional basis across smaller geographic units, such as 65 areas in England (comprising metropolitan districts and preserved counties), 8 regions in Scotland, 5 in Wales, and 2 in Northern Ireland, totaling around 80 top-up areas.[2] Allocation occurs correctively: after determining constituency winners via AV, remaining vote shares from a separate regional ballot are used to assign top-up seats to parties underrepresented relative to their regional support, subtracting seats already won and adjusting via a divisor method (typically constituency seats plus one) to achieve an overall balance.[1][2] Top-up seats are filled from open party lists, where voters indicate a preference for a party or specific candidates on the regional ballot, enabling some personalization while primarily benefiting parties through compensatory mechanics.[1] Although the system permits independent candidates on lists in principle, in practice, nominations are dominated by parties due to organizational requirements.[2] This structure draws from additional member systems but tailors top-ups to AV outcomes, ensuring smaller parties gain representation without dominating; for instance, simulations of the 1997 UK election under AV+ projected Liberal Democrats receiving 89 seats (versus 46 under first-past-the-post), aligning more closely with vote shares while major parties retained majorities.[2] The mechanism targets broad overall proportionality, reducing the Gallagher disproportionality index (a measure of vote-seat mismatch) by roughly half compared to pure AV—for example, from 18 to 9 in a 1992 UK simulation—though it falls short of full proportionality due to the limited top-up quota and regional granularity.[2] By compensating for AV's tendency to favor larger parties in single-member districts, AV+ enables parties with 5-10% national support, such as environmental or populist groups, to secure 30-65 seats proportionally, fostering multiparty input without fragmenting constituency representation.[3] This corrective approach prioritizes empirical alignment of seats to votes over strict regional quotas, though critics note potential thresholds emerge implicitly from area sizes averaging 50,000-100,000 voters.[2]

Ballot Structure and Counting Process

The ballot in the Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) system consists of two distinct sections, allowing voters to express preferences separately for local constituency representation and regional proportionality adjustments. In the first section, voters rank candidates standing in their single-member constituency in order of preference using numbers (1 for first choice, 2 for second, and so on), enabling the Alternative Vote mechanism to select a local member of parliament (MP) with majority support after redistributions.[2] The second section provides a list of parties or independent candidates for top-up seats at the regional level (such as counties or metropolitan areas), where voters mark a single choice with an "X" for their preferred party or individual; an option to select "none of the above" is included to accommodate voters opposed to all listed options, though participation in this section is optional.[1] This dual structure, as proposed by the 1998 Jenkins Commission, permits split-ticket voting, where a voter's constituency preference does not constrain their top-up choice, potentially increasing flexibility but also introducing complexity in ballot design and voter comprehension.[2] Counting proceeds in two sequential stages to balance local accountability with overall proportionality. First, constituency seats—comprising 80-85% of total seats—are tallied using the Alternative Vote: initial counts of first-preference votes are conducted, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated, and their ballots are redistributed according to next preferences until one candidate achieves an absolute majority exceeding 50% of valid votes; exhausted ballots (lacking further preferences) are set aside at each round.[1] Once all constituency winners are determined, the top-up stage aggregates second-ballot votes across the region, subtracts the seats already won by each party or candidate in constituencies, and allocates the remaining 15-20% of seats proportionally using a highest-quotient method: each party's top-up votes are divided by (constituency seats won plus one), and the party with the highest resulting quotient receives the next seat, with the process iterating after adjustments.[2] Parties must contest at least 50% of constituencies in the top-up region to qualify, but no formal vote-share threshold applies, though the limited number of top-up seats introduces degressive proportionality, slightly favoring larger parties for governmental stability by capping full compensation for smaller ones.[2] Practical implementation challenges arise from this process, including the administrative burden of handling ranked preferences alongside list votes, potential for voter errors in numbering (e.g., duplicate rankings invalidating ballots), and the need for software or manual verification to manage redistributions and quotients accurately across regions.[1] Open-list options for top-up candidates, as recommended by Jenkins, further complicate counting by requiring intra-party allocation rules, though simulations indicate feasibility with existing electoral infrastructure.[2]

Theoretical Properties

Proportionality and Seat Allocation

The Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) system allocates approximately 80-85% of seats through single-member constituencies elected by the alternative vote, with the remaining 15-20% as top-up seats distributed regionally to compensate for disproportionalities arising from the majoritarian constituency results.[2] Top-up seats are assigned to parties based on their share of regional party-list votes, adjusted for seats already won in constituencies within that region, typically employing a method such as the largest remainder to ensure total seat shares more closely approximate vote proportions.[2] This hybrid structure renders AV+ semi-proportional, as the top-up component corrects national and regional imbalances without achieving full proportionality akin to pure list systems. Simulations conducted by the Jenkins Commission for the 1997 UK general election illustrate this tempered proportionality: Labour, with 43.2% of votes, secured 63.6% of seats (419 of 659) under first-past-the-post but would have obtained 55.8% (368 seats) under AV+, still reflecting overrepresentation due to the constituency majority's bias toward viable major-party candidates.[2] The system reduced the overall disproportionality index (measured as a deviation score) from 21 under first-past-the-post to 13.2, demonstrating substantial but incomplete mitigation of vote-seat divergence.[2] Metrics such as the Gallagher least-squares index quantify AV+'s prospective performance: first-past-the-post in UK elections yields values typically ranging from 10 to 20 (e.g., 16.51 in 1997, 23.64 in 2024), indicating high disproportionality, whereas analogous additional member systems like Scotland's achieve lower indices of 5.6 to 7.55 across elections from 1999 to 2021, suggesting AV+ would similarly constrain overall deviation below 10 while preserving some majoritarian skew.[13] Regional top-ups specifically dampen the impact of localized vote swings by aggregating outcomes over broader areas (e.g., counties or metropolitan regions), preventing outliers from dominating national seat totals.[2] The AV constituency foundation, however, embeds a persistent majoritarian element that advantages larger or centrist parties capable of securing preferences, fostering outcomes skewed toward center-left coalitions in polarized systems like the UK's, as top-ups partially offset but do not erase this dynamic.[2] Empirical patterns from Scotland's additional member system confirm that such frameworks amplify minority representation—granting seats to parties polling 5-10% regionally—yet fail to eradicate safe seats, where constituency winners often exceed 50% effective support post-preference transfers.[13]

Linkage to Constituencies and Voter Representation

The Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) system preserves a strong linkage between voters and their elected representatives by allocating approximately 80-85% of parliamentary seats to single-member constituencies elected via the Alternative Vote, ensuring that the majority of members of Parliament (MPs) maintain direct accountability to specific geographic areas.[2][14] This structure contrasts with pure proportional representation (PR) systems, where representatives are often selected from closed party lists without localized ties, potentially diluting voter-MP relationships. In AV+, voters in each constituency rank candidates preferentially, electing an MP who typically achieves majority support after transfers, fostering a personal bond akin to first-past-the-post but with reduced risk of unrepresentative outcomes from vote splitting.[15] The remaining 15-20% of seats serve as top-ups to achieve overall proportionality, drawn from regional open lists where voters rank candidates, thereby incorporating direct voter input into their selection and mitigating some anonymity associated with party-nominated list members.[14] This hybrid approach, as modeled by the Jenkins Commission, retains empirical linkage for the bulk of MPs—around 85%—allowing constituents to identify and engage with a primary local representative responsible for constituency-specific issues like infrastructure and services, while top-ups address national vote share imbalances without dominating the chamber.[2] Critics of similar additional member systems, such as Scotland's, highlight reduced accountability for list members untethered to districts, but AV+'s emphasis on open lists and minority top-up allocation limits this trade-off, prioritizing localized representation over full PR's detachment.[16] Voter representation under AV+ thus balances direct electoral mandates with compensatory mechanisms, enabling individuals to influence both their immediate area's governance and broader party proportionality, a design intended to sustain democratic accountability absent in list-heavy systems.[3] Empirical simulations from the Jenkins framework indicate that this configuration avoids the "list MSP" critiques prevalent in regional assemblies, where non-constituency members face perceptions of weaker responsiveness due to party prioritization over voter geography.[2]

Vulnerability to Strategic Behavior

The alternative vote component of AV+ mitigates tactical voting relative to first-past-the-post by allowing voters to rank preferences, thereby reducing the compulsion to support a lesser-evil candidate solely to block a worse one. However, strategic behavior remains feasible, as voters may insincerely rank candidates to bury spoilers—placing a disliked frontrunner low while elevating a compromise—or exhaust ballots by not ranking all options to influence elimination order. Laboratory experiments and theoretical models indicate that, when voters hold precise beliefs about others' sincere preferences, a greater proportion may benefit from deviating in AV than in plurality systems, due to the interdependent nature of preference aggregation.[17] The Jenkins Commission acknowledged that tactical voting persists across systems but is less prevalent in AV than FPTP, where it manifests overtly through vote concentration on viable candidates.[2][18] The top-up list vote introduces additional strategic incentives, as it allocates compensatory seats based on regional party vote shares independent of constituency outcomes. Rational voters may cast this vote for a larger party to secure more top-up seats for their preferred ideology or to deny proportionality to rivals, even if it contradicts their AV rankings, akin to split-ticket strategies observed in mixed-member systems. This dual-vote structure can encourage party-line rigidity in the list component, where expressing nuanced preferences is impossible, potentially amplifying national campaigning over localized appeals and fostering coordinated tactical blocs. Simulations of hybrid systems suggest such top-ups shift focus from constituency-specific strategies to aggregate vote maximization, though empirical data from analogous AV-plus-list implementations remain limited due to AV+'s non-adoption.[19] AV+'s majoritarian filter in constituencies curtails extreme candidacies, as candidates must build broad preference support to win, limiting party incentives to nominate radicals susceptible to strategic burial. Yet, parties may strategically pad top-up lists with ideologically fringe figures, anticipating allocation only if vote thresholds are met, a tactic seen in proportional hybrids where list seats enable minor extremism without risking constituency losses. Overall, while AV+ exhibits lower aggregate insincerity than FPTP per commission-era analyses, its hybrid design sustains game-theoretic vulnerabilities, with voters trading local sincerity for national leverage in pursuit of optimal outcomes.[2][20]

Advantages and Empirical Rationale

Enhanced Fairness Compared to First-Past-the-Post

In the 2019 United Kingdom general election, the Conservative Party secured 56.2% of seats (365 out of 650) with 43.6% of the vote share, while the Liberal Democrats obtained 1.7% of seats (11) despite 11.5% of votes, exemplifying first-past-the-post (FPTP) distortions that favor geographically concentrated larger parties and marginalize others.[21][22][23] Such imbalances have intensified in multi-party contexts, with over 70% of votes effectively ignored as wasted or surplus under FPTP.[24] Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) mitigates these through a hybrid mechanism: alternative vote in 80-85% of single-member constituencies elects MPs with majority support via preference transfers, while 15-20% top-up seats, allocated regionally from party list votes, correct overall disproportionality. Simulations in the 1998 Jenkins Commission report for the 1997 election demonstrated this efficacy, reducing the disproportionality index (DV score) from 21 under FPTP to 13.2 under AV+, with Labour's seat share dropping from 63.6% (on 43.2% votes) to 55.8% (368 seats), Conservatives holding steady at around 25%, and Liberal Democrats rising from 7% (46 seats) to 13.5% (89 seats) on 16.8% votes.[2] This adjustment halved disproportionality in the 1992 election simulation and brought smaller parties closer to proportional entitlement without full list PR.[2] By incorporating top-up allocations from a separate party vote, AV+ captures remainder preferences overlooked in pure majoritarian systems, lowering barriers for parties with 10-20% dispersed support that FPTP often excludes absent geographic strongholds.[2] While AV constituency counting may exhaust 10-20% of ballots without full preferences (based on analogous systems), the list component ensures these contribute to national proportionality, addressing FPTP's historical spikes in misrepresentation during fragmented vote eras from 1950 onward.[24][2]

Preservation of Local Accountability

The Alternative Vote Plus system allocates approximately 80-85% of parliamentary seats through the alternative vote in single-member constituencies, thereby retaining a direct and personal bond between each such MP and a defined local electorate.[2] This structure counters common critiques of pure proportional representation systems, which often weaken geographic ties by relying on party lists or multi-member districts that diffuse accountability.[2] By conducting constituency elections under AV, candidates must secure majority support after preference transfers, fostering competitive, voter-centric campaigns oriented toward district-specific issues rather than diluted multi-candidate contests.[2] Unlike the single transferable vote, which employs larger multi-member constituencies and can result in shared representation that obscures individual MP responsibility, AV+ confines the bulk of seats to smaller, single-member areas to prioritize clear lines of local responsiveness.[2] This retention of constituency linkage finds empirical support in Australia's use of the alternative vote for House of Representatives elections since 1919, where single-member electorates have sustained MPs' roles in addressing constituent casework and regional advocacy without devolving into the party-boss dominance seen in list-based PR.[25] Australian data indicate that preferential voting in such districts promotes inclusive outcomes—evident in preference flows influencing close races—while preserving the adversarial nature of local contests and MPs' direct electoral mandates.[25] Fundamentally, voters under AV+ identify one primary MP accountable for constituency services, with top-up seats functioning as corrective adjustments that do not erode this core relationship, thus avoiding the "faceless" detachment of full PR lists where MPs prioritize party slates over local electorates.[2]

Potential for Reducing Wasted Votes

In the Alternative Vote (AV) stage of AV+, voters rank candidates in single-member constituencies, allowing preferences to transfer from eliminated candidates and surpluses from winners exceeding the quota, which enables a majority of votes—often exceeding 70% in simulations—to contribute to electing a representative rather than discarding non-winning first preferences as in FPTP. This mechanism inherently reduces wasted votes, defined as those not aiding an elected candidate, by iteratively reallocating ballots until a winner achieves over 50% support, assuming voters provide sufficient rankings to avoid exhaustion.[2] The top-up component further minimizes waste by utilizing residual vote shares—calculated as total party votes minus those effectively used for constituency victors (divided by seats won plus one)—to allocate 15-20% of seats via regional party lists, ensuring proportionality without discarding ballots. In the Jenkins Commission's simulation of the 1997 UK general election using ICM poll data on preferences, this yielded 112 top-up seats across 80 regions, boosting the Liberal Democrats from 46 FPTP seats to 89 (including 23 top-ups), aligning outcomes more closely with their 17% national vote share and halving the disproportionality index from 21 to 13.2 compared to FPTP.[2] Such residual utilization in AV+ mirrors efficiency gains in mixed systems like New Zealand's MMP, where wasted votes fell from approximately 48% under pre-1996 FPTP—where nearly half of ballots elected no representative—to under 5% post-reform, primarily through list allocations compensating for constituency distortions in multi-party contests. In eras of fragmented UK support, as post-2010 when third-party votes exceeded 30% but yielded disproportionate seats under FPTP, AV+'s dual stages could similarly confine waste to low single digits, contingent on low ballot exhaustion rates observed in AV trials.[26][2]

Criticisms and Potential Drawbacks

Complexity and Voter Confusion

The dual-ballot design of Alternative Vote Plus (AV+), requiring voters to rank candidates for constituency seats under the alternative vote while separately selecting parties for top-up lists, introduces significant cognitive demands that can elevate the risk of voter errors or disengagement compared to single-ballot systems. Opponents of even simpler preferential systems, such as during the 2011 UK referendum on the alternative vote (AV), argued that ranking preferences would confuse voters and result in substantial spoiled ballots, with Home Secretary Theresa May estimating up to two million invalid votes nationwide based on observed error patterns in more complex systems.[27] This concern intensifies for AV+, as the addition of a distinct list vote mirrors parallel systems like Scotland's Additional Member System (AMS), where combined ballots in the 2007 elections yielded 3.47% invalid votes, attributed to design flaws and voter misinterpretation of dual components.[7] Empirical data from preferential voting implementations underscores these risks, particularly without extensive voter acclimation. In Australia's federal elections using AV for House seats, informal (invalid) rates stood at 5.1% in 2016 and 5.9% in 2013, despite compulsory voting and over a century of system familiarity, with higher incidences in socio-economically disadvantaged areas linked to 65% of variation in urban divisions.[28] UK trials of similar preferential methods, such as the supplementary vote (a two-preference variant of AV) in the 2004 London mayoral election, recorded 7.2% invalid ballots amid combined polls, exacerbated by poor ballot clarity and multiple voting forms.[7] These rates contrast sharply with first-past-the-post's 0.38% invalidity in the 2005 UK general election, highlighting how preferential elements correlate with elevated errors in less intuitive formats.[7] From a causal standpoint, the mental load of processing rankings—entailing ordinal judgments across potentially numerous candidates—overloads low-information or less numerate voters, fostering exhaustion or default to incomplete ballots, as evidenced by persistent informal voting tied to exclusionary factors in mature systems like Australia's.[28] Such dynamics may disproportionately disenfranchise rural or lower-education demographics, who exhibit higher error propensity in complex setups per UK combined-election analyses, thereby skewing effective participation toward urban, educated cohorts accustomed to layered decision-making.[7] While acclimation mitigates some issues over decades, as in Australia, abrupt UK adoption of AV+ would likely amplify initial confusion, per patterns in devolved pilots where invalidity clustered in deprived locales due to informational deficits.[7]

Risk of Increased Party Influence via Lists

In the Alternative Vote Plus system, the top-up seats comprising 15-20% of the total allocation are filled from party-submitted lists, vesting substantial authority in party leadership to determine the order and composition of candidates for these positions.[1] This design inherently prioritizes party hierarchies, as central organizations select and rank nominees—often favoring loyalists, unsuccessful constituency contenders, or long-term insiders—over independent or voter-nominated figures, thereby insulating selectees from direct preferential voting by the electorate.[1] [2] Although the Jenkins Commission outlined provisions permitting independents to appear on top-up lists, it acknowledged the structural barriers: independents lack the organizational infrastructure, funding, and national visibility of parties, rendering their inclusion nominal and unlikely to compete effectively for allocation.[2] In practice, this fosters a party-centric incentive structure where list placements serve as de facto safe seats, enabling "job-for-life" dynamics for preferred candidates who may bypass rigorous local scrutiny, as evidenced by the commission's own simulations projecting party dominance in top-ups.[2] Comparable outcomes in the Additional Member System, employed for the Scottish Parliament since 1999, underscore this risk: all 56 regional list seats per election have been occupied exclusively by party members, with the regional ballot limited to party options and no independents securing placement, amplifying party machines' role in distributing power.[29] [30] Similarly, in Wales' Senedd, despite nominal allowance for independent regional candidates since 1999, zero independents have won list seats across elections—including the 20 list allocations in 2021—resulting in full party control and the elevation of centrally vetted figures.[31] These patterns illustrate a causal reduction in voter sovereignty, as list voters influence only party totals rather than individual selections, effectively ceding 15-20% of representation to opaque internal party decisions.[29] Critics, particularly from perspectives emphasizing direct democratic accountability, contend that such list reliance erodes the personal linkage between representatives and constituents, entrenching elite party control and diminishing incentives for constituency-focused performance.[32] This mechanism, by design, shifts power from individual voter preferences to collective party strategies, potentially inflating machine politics where loyalty to leadership trumps broader electoral mandates.[29]

Effects on Government Formation and Stability

The implementation of Alternative Vote Plus (AV+) would enhance proportionality through top-up seats allocated to parties based on national or regional vote shares, compensating for disproportionalities in the 80-85% of seats elected via AV in single-member constituencies. This mechanism reduces the "winner's bonus" inherent in first-past-the-post (FPTP) systems, where the leading party often secures a seat share far exceeding its vote share, frequently resulting in overall majorities. Under AV+, fragmented vote distributions—common in multi-party contests—would more likely produce parliaments lacking a single-party majority, as top-ups distribute additional seats to smaller parties, elevating their bargaining power in government formation. The Jenkins Commission, in its 1998 report, projected that this would allocate seats to third parties and smaller groups closer to their popular support, potentially increasing their representation by up to 20-30% relative to FPTP outcomes in proportional vote scenarios, thereby necessitating inter-party deals rather than unilateral majorities.[2] Empirical evidence from proportional representation (PR) systems underscores the risks of such fragmentation for governmental stability. In Italy, under a pure list PR system from 1946 to 1993, the fragmented party landscape led to 62 governments in 47 years, with an average duration of approximately 452 days, characterized by frequent coalition collapses and policy paralysis amid ideological divisions and veto-playing among centrist and extremist factions. This contrasts sharply with the UK's FPTP record from 1983 to 2019, where single-party majorities prevailed in seven of eight general elections (1983, 1987, 1992, 1997, 2001, 2005, 2015, and 2019 Conservatives or Labour), enabling consistent legislative agendas without the protracted negotiations typical of coalition arithmetic.[33][34] While AV+ incorporates constituency majorities to mitigate extreme fragmentation compared to full PR, its partial proportionality still elevates the probability of hung parliaments, as evidenced by simulations of UK elections under analogous mixed-member systems, which show minority outcomes in 2015 and 2017 due to third-party vote splits preventing any party from reaching 326 seats. Critics of AV+ argue that the resultant reliance on post-election coalitions undermines decisive governance, fostering "bartering" over clear mandates and mirroring instabilities observed in PR-adopting democracies, where government durability averages 20-30% lower than in majoritarian systems. Proponents counter that coalitions can incentivize compromise and broader consensus, yet data from mixed systems like Scotland's Additional Member System—similar to AV+ but with FPTP constituencies—reveal repeated minority administrations since 1999, requiring confidence-and-supply deals or repeated elections to resolve deadlocks. Overall, AV+'s design prioritizes representational equity at the potential cost of the swift executive formation enabled by FPTP's bias toward manufactured majorities, with empirical patterns suggesting heightened volatility in polarized electorates.[35]

Reception and Implementation Attempts

United Kingdom Reactions and Political Debates

The Independent Commission on the Voting System, chaired by Labour peer Roy Jenkins, recommended AV+ in October 1998 as a compromise electoral reform, prompting varied partisan responses in the UK.[36] Labour initially endorsed the commission's work, fulfilling a 1997 manifesto pledge for a voting system review, but support diminished as Prime Minister Tony Blair prioritized the pure Alternative Vote for its retention of majoritarian single-member constituencies without proportional top-ups, viewing it as sufficient to mitigate FPTP's worst distortions while preserving decisive governments.[2] Under later Labour leadership, including Jeremy Corbyn's tenure from 2015 to 2020, electoral reform receded amid priorities like Brexit and internal divisions, with no substantive push for AV+ or broader changes despite FPTP's role in amplifying small vote shifts into large seat majorities, as seen in the 2019 election where Labour's 32.1% vote yielded 31.2% seats.[37] Conservative Party figures consistently opposed AV+ and similar reforms, framing them as a "gerrymander" advantaging centrist Liberal Democrats by diluting the constituency link and introducing party-controlled top-up lists, which could entrench elite influence over candidate selection.[32] This stance aligned with defense of FPTP's empirical record in delivering stable, single-party governments—evident in 14 of 19 post-war UK parliaments under FPTP versus chronic coalitions in full PR systems like Germany's, where fragmented outcomes have enabled policy gridlock on issues such as migration. Critics within Conservative circles, including during the 2011 AV referendum campaign, argued that AV+ variants risked similar instability without proportional gains justifying the trade-off in voter-direct accountability.[38] Liberal Democrats and the Electoral Reform Society (ERS) championed AV+ as a pragmatic advance toward proportionality, with Lib Dems citing the 2010 coalition agreement's AV referendum—where AV lost 68% to 32%—as a betrayal that stalled progress despite public discontent with FPTP's "wasted votes," such as the 2015 election's record disproportionality where UKIP's 12.6% vote secured just 1 seat.[39] ERS advocacy emphasized AV+'s hybrid design for reducing tactical voting while maintaining local MPs, though Lib Dem preferences historically leaned toward the Single Transferable Vote for fuller proportionality.[1] Proponents' claims of inherent "progressiveness" in PR elements have faced scrutiny, as list-based top-ups in AV+ could amplify party gatekeeping—mirroring elite capture in systems like Scotland's AMS, where SNP dominance persisted via strategic list placements despite voter fragmentation, undermining assertions of broader ideological diversity.[40] By 2024, FPTP backlash intensified after Reform UK's 14.3% national vote translated to only 5 seats, prompting leader Nigel Farage to advocate proportional representation as essential to reflect voter intent and avert "electoral injustice," marking a shift from prior Conservative-aligned defenses of the status quo.[10] This echoed cross-party critiques post-election, yet Conservatives reiterated FPTP's causal link to governmental efficacy, citing historical data where majoritarian systems correlated with faster economic recoveries compared to PR-induced paralysis in countries like Italy or the Netherlands.[41] Debates underscored AV+'s unresolved tension: while left-leaning reformers prioritize vote-seat alignment, empirical patterns suggest semi-proportional hybrids may foster neither robust accountability nor unmediated proportionality, often yielding coalition compromises that dilute mandate clarity.

International Proposals and Variants

In 2019, electoral researcher Nicholas Messemaker proposed AV+ for the South Australian House of Assembly in a working paper, arguing it would mitigate the dominance of major parties under the existing preferential voting system by allocating additional "top-up" seats via party lists to achieve greater proportionality while retaining 80% of seats through constituency-based alternative vote elections.[42] The system was presented as a means to foster majority governments with enhanced representation for minor parties, drawing on AV+'s hybrid structure to balance local accountability and overall vote share alignment.[43] This academic advocacy did not advance to legislative consideration, and South Australia continued using instant-runoff voting without top-up elements. AV+ has not been implemented or officially adopted in any country as of 2025, remaining confined to theoretical and reform discussions primarily outside the United Kingdom.[1] In broader international contexts, hybrid electoral models akin to AV+—combining majoritarian constituency votes with proportional top-ups—have influenced debates on alternatives to pure MMP or FPTP, such as in evaluations of systems preserving single-member districts, but no jurisdictions have pursued AV+ specifically.[44] Variants of AV+ proposed in academic literature include adjustments to the proportionality threshold or substitution of ranked-choice mechanisms, such as using single transferable vote in larger constituencies instead of alternative vote for the majoritarian component, to further emphasize voter preferences while maintaining the two-vote framework. These adaptations aim to address potential complexities in list allocation but have similarly lacked empirical testing or policy traction internationally.

Empirical Simulations and Modeling Outcomes

Simulations conducted as part of the 1998 Jenkins Commission, including projections by political scientist Patrick Dunleavy, demonstrated AV+'s capacity to moderate disproportionality compared to FPTP. For the 1997 general election, under a proposed AV+ configuration with approximately 17.5% top-up seats allocated via a compensatory mechanism akin to the d'Hondt method, Labour's seat share would decline to 368 (55.8% of 659 total seats) from 419 under FPTP, reflecting a partial offset of their 43.2% vote share dominance. Conservatives would secure 168 seats (25.5%), a marginal increase from 165, while Liberal Democrats would rise to 89 seats (13.5%) from 46, better aligning with their 16.8% vote. Smaller parties, including SNP and Plaid Cymru, would gain to 15 seats from 10, with others at 19. The Gallagher disproportionality index (DV score) would fall from 21 under FPTP to around 9-13, depending on top-up percentage, targeting a range of 4-8 for semi-proportional outcomes.[2] Similar modeling for the 1992 election under AV+ with 17.5% top-up yielded a hung parliament, with no single party achieving majority and a potential Labour-Liberal Democrat alliance falling short, further illustrating AV+'s tendency to fragment large-party dominance through regional list compensation. These outcomes highlight AV+'s causal mechanics: AV in 80-85% of single-member districts ensures local majorities via preference transfers, while d'Hondt-applied top-up seats (15-20%, or 99-132) rectify national vote-seat gaps by favoring larger parties initially but enabling smaller ones entry thresholds around 5-10% regionally. Trade-offs emerge in reduced safe seats—eroding incumbent cushions in marginals via AV exhaustion—and heightened party-list influence, potentially shifting power from individual candidates to central machines for top-up selections.[2] Post-Jenkins analyses confirm AV+'s verifiable proportionality gains via these methods, though no peer-reviewed national simulations for 2019 or 2024 elections were identified; devolved AMS variants (e.g., Scotland, Wales) using analogous top-ups show DV scores consistently below FPTP's extremes, often 5-10. For instance, Reform UK's 14.3% national vote in 2024 yielding only 5 seats under FPTP would likely translate to 50-100 additional seats via top-ups in AV+, per semi-proportional benchmarks, though exact figures depend on regional vote concentration and AV district resolutions. Such models underscore AV+'s balance: enhanced smaller-party viability without full proportionality, at the cost of occasional coalition necessities and diluted local linkage.[7][10] Critics of AV+ modeling note potential over-reliance on historical vote data, ignoring strategic shifts under preference voting or list incentives, yet the d'Hondt formula's mathematical determinism—dividing party votes by successive integers (1,2,3...) to allocate seats—ensures replicable, bias-minimal top-ups favoring broader representation over pure majoritarianism. Empirical tests in hybrid systems affirm reduced wasted votes (via AV transfers) and top-up equity, with UK devolved examples post-1999 yielding governments more reflective of vote pluralism than Westminster FPTP.[45]

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  39. Election 'most disproportionate in history' say campaigners - BBC
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  44. [PDF] Choosing an Electoral System | The British Academy
  45. [PDF] How proportional are the 'British AMS' systems?
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