Results of the United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, 2011

United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum
At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead? Election results Yes or no Votes Percentage Yes 6,152,607 32.1% No 13,013,123 67.9% Valid votes 19,165,730 99.41% Invalid or blank votes 113,292 0.59% Total votes 19,279,022 100.00% Voter turnout 42.2% Electorate 45,684,501 Election results by local counting areas   Yes 60%-62.5%   Yes 57.5%-60%   Yes 55%-57.5%   Yes 52.5%-55%   Yes 50%-52.5%   No 50%-52.5%   No 52.5%-55%   No 55%-57.5%   No 57.5%-60%   No 60%-62.5%   No 62.5%-65%   No 65%-67.5%   No 67.5%-70%   No 70%-72.5%   No 72.5%-75%   No >75%
Referendum was held: 5 May 2011

In the United Kingdom, the Alternative Vote referendum was a public vote that took place on 5 May 2011, on whether to change the system for electing the House of Commons, the lower house of the national Parliament at Westminster. In the result of a Yes vote, future United Kingdom general elections would have used the "Alternative Vote" (AV); in the event of a No vote, the voting system would remain the same, with the UK continuing to use the "First Past the Post" (FPTP) voting system. The votes cast in the referendum were first counted in each of 440 districts or electoral divisions across the country (the "local counting areas"),^[1] which were then combined and declared at a regional level (the regions being the constituent countries of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, and the regions of England).

Ballots were due to be verified by 1pm on 6 May 2011 and the votes were counted from 4pm onwards.^[2] Both the local and regional results were updated live online via aboutmyvote.co.uk, a publicly-accessible website run by The Electoral Commission.^[3]

This article lists, by counting area, all the results of the referendum, each ordered into national and regional sections.

UK result

United Kingdom Alternative Vote referendum, 2011
Choice	Votes	Percentage
No	13,013,123	67.90%
Yes	6,152,607	32.10%
Valid votes	19,165,730	99.41%
Invalid or blank votes	113,292	0.59%
Total votes	19,279,022	100.00%
Voter turnout	42.2%
Electorate	45,684,501
Source: [1]

Results by regions and countries

Local results

Of the 440 counting areas, ten returned a majority in favour of the change (Cambridge, Oxford, Glasgow Kelvin, Edinburgh Central, and the London Boroughs of Hackney, Islington, Haringey, Lambeth, Southwark and Camden). The counting area with the highest proportion of AV supporters was the Hackney with 60.68% in favour of the change (34.23% turnout) and the lowest proportion was the borough of Castle Point, Essex with 20.29% in favour (41.38% turnout).

England

The districts of England were used as the local counting areas for the UK-wide referendum in England; these consist of all unitary authorities, all metropolitan boroughs, all shire districts, the London boroughs, the City of London and the Isles of Scilly.^[1]

The English Regions were also then used to count the votes at the regional level. All nine regions in England returned huge "no" votes.

East Midlands

Results in the East Midlands
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The East Midlands region was broken down into 40 local counting areas.

East of England

Results in the East of England
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The East of England region was broken down into 47 local counting areas.

London

Results in London
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The London region was broken down into 33 local counting areas.

North East England

Results in North East England
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The North East England region was broken down into 12 local counting areas.

North West England

Results in North West England
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The North West England region was broken down into 39 local counting areas.

South East England

Results in South East England
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The South East England region was broken down into 67 local counting areas.

South West England

Results in South West England
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The South West England region was broken down into 37 local counting areas.

West Midlands

Results in the West Midlands
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The West Midlands region was broken down into 30 local counting areas.

Yorkshire and the Humber

Results in Yorkshire and the Humber
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

The Yorkshire and the Humber region was broken down into 21 local counting areas.

Northern Ireland

Northern Ireland was a single counting area, as well as being a regional count for the UK-wide referendum. It was the last region of the United Kingdom to declare its result after major delays due to slow pace of counting and declaring results for the 2011 Northern Ireland Assembly Elections meant that the start of the local count for the referendum could not begin until the evening on Friday 6 May 2011, several hours after counting had started in the rest of the country and the result was not finally known until 1am on Saturday 7 May 2011.^[1]

Results in Northern Ireland
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

Scotland

The constituencies of the Scottish Parliament were used as the local counting areas for the UK-wide referendum throughout Scotland.^[1]

Results in Scotland
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

Scotland was broken down into 73 local counting areas.

Wales

The constituencies of the National Assembly for Wales were used as the local counting areas for the UK-wide referendum throughout Wales.^[1]

Results in Wales
Colours:

  Yes

  50%-65% No

  >65% No

Wales was broken down into 40 local counting areas.

References

External links

• The Electoral Commission Referendum results

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