Voting Systems

• One feature of the Additional Members System (AMS) is that the people of Scotland get to make two choices on who they would like to be represented by in the Scottish Parliament. One vote is for their Constituency and one vote is for the Region. For example, the people of Prestwik would vote in the Ayr constituency and the South of Scotland Region.
• Another feature of the Additional Members System (AMS) is that MSPs are either Constituency MSPs or Regional MSPs. For example, Nicola Sturgeon and Siobhan Brown both represented their local areas as Constituency MSPs.
• A final feature of the Additional Members System (AMS) is that there is a more proportional result. This means that the more seats in Parliament the parties get the more votes they will receive. For example, back in 2021 the Conservatives got around 23% of the vote and around 24% of the seats.
• One weakness of the Additional Members System is that it is quite difficult to understand. Elections under AMS involve voters using 2 ballots to select MSPs in 2 different ways which could possibly put some people off of voting. For example, in the first vote you vote for a person for your Constituency but in the second vote you vote for a party in your Region.
• Another weakness of the Additional Members System is the first vote almost uses a winner-takes-all system (First Past the Post) which only needs a simple majority for someone to win which isn't seen as fair. For example Siobhan Brown the MSP for Ays won less than 50% of the vote in 2021.
• A final weakness of the Additional Members System is that it encourages tactical voting. With First Past the Post (FPTP) people will often choose the party they think is closest to their views rather than the one they want. For example, many people in Prestwick would have voted for the SNP or the Conservatives because there were the only 2 that had a chance to win rather than other parties in 2021.