Editing Strategic voting (section)

=== United Kingdom ===<!--In the [[1997 United Kingdom general election]] in [[Winchester]], [[Mark Oaten]] ([[Liberal Democrats|Liberal Democrat]]) beat the incumbent [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservative]] MP [[Gerry Malone]] with a majority of 2 votes. Malone successfully challenged the election in the High Court, which declared it void. A [[1997 Winchester by-election|by-election]] was held which returned [[Mark Oaten]] as MP, this time with a larger majority of 21,556. This was due to the majority of Labour voters voting Liberal in the by-election.-->
In the [[1997 United Kingdom general election|1997 UK general election]], [[Democratic Left (United Kingdom)|Democratic Left]] helped [[Bruce Kent]] set up GROT (Get Rid Of Them) a strategic voter campaign whose aim was to help prevent the Conservative Party from gaining a 5th term in office. This coalition was drawn from individuals in all the main opposition parties, and many who were not aligned with any party. While it is hard to prove that GROT swung the election itself, it did attract significant media attention and brought strategic voting into the mainstream for the first time in UK politics. In 2001, the Democratic Left's successor organisation, the [[New Politics Network]], organised a similar campaign. Since then strategic voting has become a consideration in British politics as is reflected in by-elections and by the growth in sites such as tacticalvote.co.uk, who encourage strategic voting as a way of defusing the two party system and empowering the individual voter. For the [[2015 United Kingdom general election|2015 UK general election]], voteswap.org attempted to prevent the Conservative Party staying in government by encouraging Green Party supporters to tactically vote for the Labour Party in listed marginal seats. In 2017 swapmyvote.uk was formed to help supporters of all parties swap their votes with people in other constituencies.

In the 2006 local elections in London, strategic voting was promoted by sites such as London Strategic Voter in a response to national and international issues.<ref>{{Cite web |last=andrew |date=2006-04-04 |title=Strategic Voters target New Labour wipe-out in 4th May London local elections |url=https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2006/04/strategic_voter_1/ |access-date=2025-03-20 |website=Craig Murray |language=en-GB}}</ref>

In Northern Ireland, it is believed that (predominantly Protestant) Unionist voters in Nationalist strongholds have voted for the [[Social Democratic and Labour Party]] (SDLP) to prevent [[Sinn Féin]] from capturing such seats. This conclusion was reached by comparing results to the demographics of constituencies and polling districts.{{fact|date=June 2024}}

In the [[2017 United Kingdom general election|2017 general election]], it is estimated that 6.5 million people (more than 20% of voters) voted tactically<ref name="sky.com2">{{cite web |title=General Election 2017: 6.5 million voted tactically on 8 June |url=https://news.sky.com/story/general-election-2017-65-million-voted-tactically-on-8-june-10998890 |access-date=5 April 2018 |website=sky.com}}</ref> either as a way of preventing a "hard Brexit" or preventing another Conservative government led by the Tactical2017 campaign.<ref name="sky.com2" /> Many Green Party candidates withdrew from the race in order to help the Labour Party<ref>{{cite web |date=25 April 2017 |title=Green Party pulls out of crucial general election seat to help Labour beat the Tories |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-pulls-general-election-seat-ealing-help-labour-beat-tories-rupa-huq-a7701081.html |url-access=subscription |url-status=live |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/green-party-pulls-general-election-seat-ealing-help-labour-beat-tories-rupa-huq-a7701081.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |access-date=5 April 2018 |website=independent.co.uk}}</ref> secure closely fought seats against the Conservatives. This ultimately led to the Conservatives losing seats in the election even though they increased their overall vote share.<ref>{{Cite web |last1=Cartwright |first1=James |last2=Smith |first2=Lilly |date=6 May 2018 |title=Flipping the Script |url=https://designobserver.com/feature/flipping-the-script/39852 |work=Design Observer}}</ref>

In the [[2019 Conservative Party leadership election]] to determine the final two candidates for the party vote, it was suggested that front-runner Boris Johnson's campaign encouraged some of its MPs to back [[Jeremy Hunt]] instead of Johnson, so that Hunt{{snd}}seen as "a lower-energy challenger"{{snd}}would finish in second place, allowing an easier defeat in the party vote.<ref>{{cite web |date=20 June 2019 |title=Did Boris's dirty tricks help Hunt over Gove? |url=https://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2019/06/jeremy-hunt-and-boris-johnson-through-to-the-final-two/ |access-date=12 December 2019 |website=Coffee House}}</ref> Strategic voting was expected to play a major role in the [[2019 United Kingdom general election|2019 General Election]], with a [[YouGov]] poll suggesting that 19% of voters would be doing so tactically. 49% of strategic voters said they would do so in the hope of stopping a party whose views they opposed.<ref>{{cite news |title=Who's tactically voting, and why? {{!}} YouGov |url=https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/12/10/whos-tactically-voting-and-why |access-date=12 December 2019 |work=yougov.co.uk |language=en-gb}}</ref>

According to a 2020 study, older voters in the UK vote strategically more than younger voters, and richer voters vote more strategically than poorer voters.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Eggers |first1=Andrew C. |last2=Vivyan |first2=Nick |date=2020 |title=Who Votes More Strategically? |journal=American Political Science Review |language=en |volume=114 |issue=2 |pages=470–485 |doi=10.1017/S0003055419000820 |issn=0003-0554 |s2cid=210896040 |doi-access=free}}</ref>

In an example of individuals voting tactically, [[Labour Party (UK)|Labour]] voters in the [[2022 Tiverton and Honiton by-election]] in the UK tactically supported the [[Liberal Democrats (UK)|Liberal Democrat]] candidate in order to ensure the defeat of the [[Conservative Party (UK)|Conservatives]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Cecil |first=Nicholas |date=24 June 2022 |title=Sir John Curtice: Tories in trouble but Keir Starmer still missing crucial spark |url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/sir-john-curtice-analysis-by-election-results-wakefield-tiverton-honiton-keir-starmer-labour-boris-johnson-b1008172.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220624122332/https://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/sir-john-curtice-analysis-by-election-results-wakefield-tiverton-honiton-keir-starmer-labour-boris-johnson-b1008172.html |archive-date=24 June 2022 |access-date=24 June 2022 |work=[[Evening Standard]] |quote=Sir John Curtice, Professor of Politics at Strathclyde University, [...] highlighted how many Labour voters switched to the Liberal Democrats in the Tiverton and Honiton by-election, to topple a Tory majority of 24,000. [...] 'Labour and Liberal Democrat voters are ganging up against the Tories, voting tactically,' he said.}}</ref> This resulted in the Liberal Democrats winning what had previously been a Conservative [[safe seat]].

In 2024, tactical voting was again advocated for the [[2024 United Kingdom general election|2024 general election]], as a means to defeat Conservative candidates in seats with traditional large Conservative majorities.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Walker |first=Peter |date=2024-06-17 |title=Tactical voting could defeat Tories in once safe seats, campaigners say |url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/17/tactical-voting-guide-tories-once-safe-seats |access-date=2024-06-17 |work=[[The Guardian]] |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>{{Update inline|date=August 2024}}