Low Voter Turnout Rate Essay

1394 Words3 Pages

Like the United States, the United Kingdom is known for having low voter turnout rates. In the United Kingdom, the last general election was in 2017 in which 68.93% of voters turn out to the polls, similar to a relatively low number compared to other democracies. The set up of the United Kingdom electoral system may be a factor that has played into the country's low voter turnout rate. Parliamentary elections in the United Kingdom operate similarly to how parliamentary elections operate in the United State. The United Kingdom is divided into 650 constituencies, which all have a similar number of inhabitants. Each constituency is represented by one member of parliament who has a seat in the House of Commons, the UK's lower chamber of parliament. …show more content…

85.89% of Denmark's population voted in the 2015 parliamentary election, the makeup of Denmark's electoral system may help to explain why the turnout is so high.The Danish electoral system for the unicameral parliament of Kingdom of Denmark, the Folketing, is based on proportional representation. That means the nationwide popular vote determines how many seats each party receives in the Folketing ( parliament ). For instance, if a party garners 20% of the overall popular vote, it receives 20% of the seats in parliament. No vote is wasted in Denmark, Denmark has had a unicameral (single-chamber) parliament since 1953. The parliament has 179 members: 175 are elected in Denmark, two in the Faroe Island and two in Greenland. The country is divided into 10 multi-member constituencies Each constituency is assigned a set number of seats. A total of 135 seats are distributed in proportion to the votes in each constituency. The other 40 seats are supplementary and allotted to balance any difference between district-level results and the nationwide vote share. In Denmark, there is no single majority, to ensure proportionality, about one quarter of all seats are distributed after the initial count in accordance with the national popular vote; This is meant to ensure that the number of seats each party secures matches as closely as possible each party's vote share, in accordance with Denmark's constitution which requires not only regional representation but "equal representation of the various opinions of the

Open Document