First-past-the-post voting facts for kids

First-past-the-post (often called FPTP) is a way that some countries choose their leaders and lawmakers. Imagine a big race where the first person to cross the finish line wins, no matter how far ahead they are. That's a bit like how this voting system works!

In countries using FPTP, the country is split into smaller areas called constituencies or districts. In each district, different people, called candidates, want to be chosen to represent that area in the country's parliament (like a big meeting place where laws are made). These candidates usually belong to different political parties.

The winner in each district is simply the candidate who gets the most votes. They don't need to get more than half of all the votes; they just need more votes than any other single candidate. This is why it's also called a plurality system. It's different from a majority system, where the winner must get more votes than all other candidates put together.

If one political party wins more than half of all the seats in parliament, they can form a strong government called a majority government. If no single party wins over half the seats, then either the party with the most seats can form a minority government (which might need help from other parties to pass laws), or two or more parties can team up to form a coalition government.

Countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, India, and parts of the United States use this system.

How Does First-Past-the-Post Work?

First-past-the-post is a simple way to pick representatives. Voters choose one candidate on their ballot. The candidate who gets the highest number of votes in their district wins the election for that district.

Why Parties Use Primary Elections

Sometimes, a political party might have more than one person who wants to be their candidate for an election. To avoid splitting their own party's votes, they often hold a "primary election" first. This helps them choose just one main candidate to run in the general election.

For example, imagine 60% of voters like the "Blue Party" and 40% like the "Green Party." If two Blue Party candidates run against one Green Party candidate, and each Blue candidate gets 30% of the vote, the Green Party candidate would win with 40%. This happens even though most voters (60%) preferred a Blue Party candidate. The primary election helps prevent this by picking just one Blue candidate.

Choosing a Candidate

When there are many candidates in an election, voters sometimes choose a candidate they think has the best chance of winning, even if that candidate isn't their absolute favorite. This is called "compromise voting."

Some people who don't like this system say that news channels and media can have too much power. They might tell people which two candidates are the "front runners," making voters feel like voting for anyone else is a wasted vote. It's possible that the two main candidates might not truly represent what most people want.

Benefits of First-Past-the-Post

People who support first-past-the-post say it's very easy to understand. They also argue that it encourages voters to choose a candidate who is more "middle-of-the-road" or centrist, because voters often compromise to pick someone who can win. To avoid some of the problems, some elections using this system might have a "run-off election" if no candidate gets a certain percentage or a majority of votes in the first round.

Example of Winning

Let's look at an example to see how the winner is chosen:

In a first-past-the-post system, Candidate A wins this election. Why? Because Candidate A received 25 votes, which is more than any other candidate, even though they didn't get more than half of all the votes.

Images for kids

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  Countries that primarily use a first-past-the-post voting system for national legislative elections

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  Regional Parties achieve proportionally more seats than their vote share. Votes (left) v Seats (right) 2019 UK general election with Conservative and Labour removed.

See also

In Spanish: Escrutinio mayoritario uninominal para niños