Editing Plurality voting (section)

==== Wasted votes ====
[[File:Vote 12345-en.svg|thumb|A ballot with a potential wasted vote goes into the voting box]]
[[Wasted vote]]s are those cast for candidates or parties who did not get elected. Some number of wasted votes by this definition is practically unavoidable, but plurality systems suffer from large numbers of wasted votes. For example, in the [[2005 United Kingdom general election|UK general election of 2005]], 52% of votes were cast for losing candidates and 18% were excess votes, a total of 70% wasted votes. That is perhaps the most fundamental criticism of FPTP, the single-member plurality system, since at least half the votes are always wasted in a district, either as being placed on un-elected candidates or being surplus to what could be needed to win.

SMP is in practice similar in plurality block voting. They both operate under the "winner-takes-all" principle, which means that the party of the losing candidates in each district receive no representation, regardless of the number of votes they receive.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Verma |first=Dhruv |date=2021-01-01 |title=Reflecting People's Will: Evaluating elections with computer aided simulations |journal=Open Political Science |language=en |volume=4 |issue=1 |pages=228–237 |doi=10.1515/openps-2021-0021 |issn=2543-8042 |s2cid=236980393 |doi-access=free}}</ref> Even the single non-transferable vote can result in very inefficient results if many candidates with small support compete or the most-popular candidates receive a large excess of votes. This is because like other plurality systems,  SNTV does not transfer loser and surplus votes.

Another way to count wasted votes, is to see the ones that may play no part in determining the outcome.<ref name=":2">{{Cite journal |last1=Whitelock |first1=Amy |last2=Whitelock |first2=Jeryl |last3=van Heerde |first3=Jennifer |date=2010-04-06 |editor-last=Harris |editor-first=Phil |title=The influence of promotional activity and different electoral systems on voter turnout: A study of the UK and German Euro elections |url=https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/03090561011020499/full/html |journal=European Journal of Marketing |language=en |volume=44 |issue=3/4 |pages=401–420 |doi=10.1108/03090561011020499 |issn=0309-0566}}</ref> Under FPTP for example, usually only votes for the top two candidates can be seen as really competing for the position, with only one possible to win; votes placed on other candidates are almost certain not to be used to elect anyone and therefore wasted. Sometimes not even two candidate are seen as being competitive. Due to having a history of repeatedly electing candidates of a certain party, many districts are known to have [[safe seat]]s. On such, a candidate or party has a near 100% chance that they win the seats. Supporters of others sometimes do not even bother to vote knowing of the odds that face their candidate.

Alternative electoral systems, such as [[proportional representation]], attempt to ensure that almost all of the votes are effective in influencing the result and electing a representative, which minimizes vote wastage.<ref>{{Citation |last1=Blais |first1=André |title=Voter Turnout |date=2013-06-25 |work=Political Science |url=https://oxfordbibliographies.com/view/document/obo-9780199756223/obo-9780199756223-0066.xml |access-date=2022-04-15 |publisher=Oxford University Press |language=en |doi=10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0066 |isbn=978-0-19-975622-3 |last2=Anduiza |first2=Eva |doi-access=free}}</ref> Such systems decreases disproportionality in election results and are also credited for increasing voter turnout.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Blais |first=André |date=2006-06-01 |title=What affects voter turnout? |journal=Annual Review of Political Science |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=111–125 |doi=10.1146/annurev.polisci.9.070204.105121 |issn=1094-2939 |doi-access=free}}</ref>