Referendum on how to elect United Kingdom House of Commons

The United Kingdom had the referendum on "alternative vote" system for its House of Commons (parliamentary) elections. They voted resoundingly no. If passed, there would be multi-member districts, with alternative voting, or ranked ballot, to choose who would represent each district. The referendum vote was part of the agreement to form a coalition between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

There was discussion of having a threshold that fourty percent turn out would be needed to pass the referendum.

The Green Party of England Wales is in favor of a proportional vote. They believed that the alternative vote system in the referendum would be a step in the right direction. And this illustrates that we should have several possibilities in a referendum. In this case that would include the Alternative Vote proposed, Proportional Voting, and the Status Quo.

"At a March 2011 Voting Power in Practice annual workshop, held at the London School of Economics (LSE), 22 voting theory specialists voted to select the "best voting procedure" to elect a candidate from a selection of three or more. First past the post received no votes, compared to 10 for AV, although another system, Approval Voting (not on offer in this referendum), received 15 votes.[106]

By the way the Yes campaign outspent the No campaign three to two.