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Year 9

Voting systems

I can understand other existing voting systems.

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Year 9

Voting systems

I can understand other existing voting systems.

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Lesson details

Key learning points

  1. With the Single Transferable Vote (STV) , the opinions in parliament match the strength of support in the country.
  2. With the Alternative Vote (AV) your constituency gets an MP the majority support
  3. Different systems offer different benefits for voters and officials

Keywords

  • Single Transferable Vote (STV) - With the Single Transferable Vote (STV) , the opinions in parliament match the strength of support in the country.

  • Alternative vote (AV) - With the Alternative Vote (AV), your constituency gets an MP the majority support.

Common misconception

Mixing up STV and AV as both involve ranking candidates from favourite to least.

With STV, excess votes from the winning candidates are also reassigned.


To help you plan your year 9 maths lesson on: Voting systems, download all teaching resources for free and adapt to suit your pupils' needs...

You may wish to look at the citizenship lessons that consider elections or collaborate with the citizenship department in your school if you want pupils to explore this further.
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This content is © Oak National Academy Limited (2025), licensed on Open Government Licence version 3.0 except where otherwise stated. See Oak's terms & conditions (Collection 2).

Lesson video

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6 Questions

Q1.
Here is a formula. If the values for $$a, b, c$$ and $$d$$ are known, what is a valid first step?
An image in a quiz
Evaluate the numerator.
Evaluate the denominator.
Divide the numerator by the denominator.
Correct answer: Substitute in the known values.
Q2.
Here is a formula. If the values for $$a, b, c$$ and $$d$$ are known and substituted in, what is a valid next step?
An image in a quiz
Correct answer: Evaluate the numerator.
Correct answer: Evaluate the denominator.
Divide the numerator by the denominator.
Substitute in the known values.
Q3.
Here is a formula. If $$a = 5, b = 7, c = 19$$ and $$d = 11$$ what does the numerator evaluate to?
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 32
Q4.
Here is a formula. If $$a = 5, b = 7, c = 19$$ and $$d = 11$$ what does the denominator evaluate to?
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 8
Q5.
Here is a formula. If $$a = 5, b = 7, c = 19$$ and $$d = 11$$ which of the following is correct?
An image in a quiz
$$h = \frac{32}{9}$$
$$h = \frac{52}{9}$$
Correct answer: $$h = \frac{32}{8}$$
$$h = \frac{52}{8}$$
Q6.
Here is a formula. If $$a = 5, b = 7, c = 19$$ and $$d = 11$$ what is the value of $$h$$?
An image in a quiz
Correct Answer: 4, h = 4

6 Questions

Q1.
With the (STV), the opinions in parliament match the strength of support in the country.
Correct Answer: Single Transferable Vote
Q2.
With the (AV), your constituency gets an MP the majority support.
Correct Answer: Alternative Vote
Q3.
If the quota of votes to be elected is 34 561 and a candidate receives 42 983 votes, how many votes are reassigned under random selection?
Correct Answer: 8422
Q4.
If the quota of votes to be elected is 34 561 and a candidate receives 42 983 votes, under fractional transfers how much is a reassigned vote worth (to 3 d.p.)?
Correct Answer: 0.196
Q5.
1 891 457 votes are cast. Under the AV system, how many votes are needed to win?
945 728
Correct answer: 945 729
1 891 457
Q6.
7 541 980 votes are cast. Under the AV system, how many votes are needed to win?
3 770 990
Correct answer: 3 770 991
7 541 980