Plurality (voting) - in British English

In British English

In UK constituency elections, which typically feature three or more candidates representing major parties, a plurality is sometimes referred to as a "majority" or a "relative majority" while the terms "overall majority" or "absolute majority" are used to describe the support of more than one half of votes cast. The plurality voting system is called first past the post in the UK.

For example, consider an election where 100 votes are cast for three candidates, with Alice polling 40 votes, Bob 31, and Carol 29. A Briton might say "Alice won with a majority of 9" (since Alice polled 9 more votes than her closest competitor), whereas a Canadian would only say "Alice won with a plurality", since the Canadian definition uses the word "majority" only if Alice would have polled more than all her competitors combined.

Read more about this topic:  Plurality (voting)

Famous quotes containing the words british and/or english:

    When a man wants to write a book full of unassailable facts, he always goes to the British Museum.
    Anthony Trollope (1815–1882)

    This seems a long while ago, and yet it happened since Milton wrote his Paradise Lost. But its antiquity is not the less great for that, for we do not regulate our historical time by the English standard, nor did the English by the Roman, nor the Roman by the Greek.... From this September afternoon, and from between these now cultivated shores, those times seemed more remote than the dark ages.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)