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Sean Buchan, Bristol Green Party’s co-ordinator, explores the party’s recent surge in the city council and how to vote Green in this year’s local elections – the last until 2020.
It’s been a big year for the Bristol Green Party. In May 2015 we more than doubled our representation in the Bristol City Council, from 6 councillors to 14, and came very close to winning a second seat in parliament in Bristol West. We are now the third biggest political party on Bristol City Council.
This year, we hope to do even better.
As our Mayoral candidate Tony Dyer stated earlier this week, when Green councillors are elected, people want to keep them. We’ve produced highlights of what the Green councillor group has achieved in just one year, and what your local councillors have been doing on our councillor achievements page.
Now, for the first time ever, every single council seat is up for election in Bristol. This means we could #TurnBristolGreen in just 24 hours at the ballot box. This is it! There will be no more local elections until 2020.
At the Green Party we want to keep things simple. We always urge voters to vote for what they believe in, no matter what the voting system. So if you’re a Bristol voter and leaning green, it’s very clear: vote for your local Green council candidates, and give your first preference votes to Tony Dyer for Mayor of Bristol and Chris Briton for Police and Crime Commissioner of Avon and Somerset.
There are three different ballots all on the same day this year. Here’s how they all work.
Action: Use all of your one, two or three votes for your local Green candidates
Action: Give your first preference to the Green candidate, and your other vote to your second preference.
Action: Give your first preference to the Green candidate, and your other vote to your second preference.
Extra Resources
Want to help?
Volunteer: email your ward team or email coordinator@bristolgreenparty.org.uk
Donate: Unlike other parties we’re not funded by big business backers and local operations are run almost entirely on volunteers. You can help fund our local party activity here
Join us: Sign up to be a member at www.greenparty.org.uk. Did you know that cost of membership is from just £10.50 annually for low waged / unemployed?
We’re also proud to be the most digitally active local party. Get involved with some social media activism by joining our Thunderclap
Footnotes
*All wards will have two councillors through to 2020 and therefore two votes, except the following seven wards: Hotwells & Harbourside (1), St. George West (1), St. George Troopers Hill (1), Ashley (3), Avonmouth & Lawrence Weston (3), Westbury on Trym & Henleaze (3), Hartcliffe & Withywood (3) and Hengrove & Whitchurch Park (3)
**This voting system is called the supplementary vote. The way it works, in detail, is that all first preferences are counted and if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote (which is almost impossible with 13 candidates) then the top two candidates go through to a “final round”. In the final round, all second preferences that are cast for the top two candidates are added to their first preference total. If you voted for both of these candidates as first and second preference, then only your first preference counts. If your second preference is for any other candidate that doesn’t make the top two, this unfortunately means that your second preference is not counted either. While the supplementary vote is an improvement to the voting system used for electing our MPs and councillors (“first past the post”) it still has major flaws. Like first-past-the-post, it encourages voters to vote tactically, rather than for what they truly believe in. Ultimately The Greens favour other more representative voting systems such as the alternative vote or the single transferrable vote.