How many Councillors would keep their seats with AV?

Stat-Crunch 3 - How many Councillors would have keep their seats with AV?

I'm aware that the AV referendum only applied to parliamentary elections, but as a bit of fun - let's see how Thursday would have turned out if AV was in place.

Only 8 winners of 44 received support from over 50% of their community.

The AV debate is now getting old however, and such a resounding 'No' in the polls from Stoke-on-Trent citizens suggests they are perfectly happy with this system for electing to council (After all, changing the parliamentary rules could have been a trigger for a larger reform).

But as a stat-crunch, I thought this might make interesting reading as a post-referendum comment.

Labour have twice the power in council than in polls

Stat-Crunch 2 - Representation In The Council Chamber

This stat-crunch doesn't look at Labour as a political force, so much as a component in the council chambers. Rather than analysing party politics, this is more to do with representation of public opinion in the council chambers.

So as a bit of fun, let's see how far away from proportional representation the next 4 years at the Council will be.

It's clear to see that Labour support in the polls ends up almost doubled in the Council.

Ironically, the Conservatives are the biggest sufferers under the first past the post system used, getting less than 5% input in council votes despite over 15% public support.

And over 20% of Stoke votes have zero input in the city council.

40% Labour support inflates to 77%
20% Other support (incl. Lib Dems) shrinks to 0%

Nevertheless, the AV referendum proves that voters in Stoke-on-Trent are happy with this system (even if the referendum was specifically for parliamentary elections).

Location of Polling Stations

If you're not sure if your local polling station in Stoke-on-Trent has moved with the ward boundary changes this year, take a look at this .pdf document produced by the council.

It is the bottom file under the list: Related Files

Click here to follow the link!

Unfortunately it isn't ordered in a very reader-friendly way and includes rather confusing codes referring to 'descriptions of persons entitled to vote'.

Also it is not clear which of the new wards (or the previous wards) each polling station represents -especially confusing for someone who hasn't voted in Stoke-on-Trent before.

Hopefully a more understandable source will become available or more information delivered direct to the public.

Nevertheless, a good source if you want to check where the action will be (as long as you are familiar with Stoke-on-Trent geography!)

Welcome

Welcome to the blog extension of the @StokeElect2011 twitter account.

Here you'll find some extra bits and pieces from around the web as well as any material I create myself regarding the upcoming elections on May 5 2011.

Stoke-on-Trent citizens will be taking to the poll booths to vote not only on the national UK referendum about the adoption of Alternative Vote but also to elect an entire new array of councillors to the City Council.

To mix things up even more this May, ward boundaries and councillor numbers have changed resulting in a drop of total councillors but an increase in the number of wards. The result of this: smaller wards with independent councillors to represent.

There are exceptions - with 5 wards keeping the traditional two-councillor election and 1 ward having a three-councillor election.