Tuesday 4 May 2010

Should you vote tactically?

Tactical voting has been in the news over the weekend.
Yesterday leading Labour Party member Ed Balls advocated using tactical voting to keep the Conservatives out
Left wing think tank Compass also polled its members on whether tactical voting was a good idea last week. Its website includes a fact sheet on marginal seats.
Also discussing the issue were Liberal Democrats. see some recent posts on LibDem Voice.
On a more satirical note, famous political blogger Guido Fawkes has also been spolighting MPs who would lose their seats if voters employed tactical voting. Take a look at his blog for more.
Also interesting is the Voter Power website. This enables voters to find out if their vote will make a difference, using a calculation based upon statistical analysis by the New Economics Foundation (NEF). In this model those living in marginal constituencies have the most power.

For some academic analysis
see the CREST website. Centre for Research into Elections and Social Trends (CREST) is a Research Centre based jointly at the National Centre for Social Research (formerly SCPR) in London - Britain’s largest independent social research institute - and the Department of Sociology, University of Oxford. They have a number of papers on tactical voting. Paper 95
Definition and measurement of tactical voting : the role of rational choice
Tactical Voting and Tactical Non-Voting
Finally why not take a look at the IPSO Mori poll site which includes recent polls where the electorate have been asked if they intend to vote tactically. This archived paper considers trends in tactical voting from 1987-2010

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