Short money: why your vote counts

[TheABC]

Posting here for traffic.

There's been a lot of talk about voters feeling disenfranchised in "safe seats". Even if your vote does not change the outcome, it can still help the party of your choice.

• If your chosen candidate receives 5% of the vote, they retain their £500 deposit.
• For every 200 votes your chosen party receives, they get £33 in "short money", from Parliament. This money helps smaller parties defray their expenses and hold the larger ones to account.

Hope this helps. Happy election day!

I had no idea they got money for votes. Does that apply to the big parties as well? Surely they'd get loads of money that way?!

I can see the point of it for smaller parties, but I reckon a better system to help smaller parties would be to scrap FPTP and bring in something like STV.

@DogCatHat. Opposition parties only, according to Wiki.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_Money

I agree that we should scrap the FPTP, but for now, this is a consolation for anyone who thinks their vote is "wasted".