Scottish Election 2021: How Does Scotland’s Voting System Work?

It’s set to be a significant election at the Scottish Parliament – so what is the voting process that elects politicians to Holyrood?

The BBC’s Connor Gillies talks through how 129 Members of the Scottish Parliament (MSPs) are elected through the Additional Member System.

When polls open on 6 May, people in Scotland will have the chance to cast two votes – one for a constituency MSP, and another for a regional ballot.

Video by Morgan Spence and Louise Andrew

We’re also on other channels too!

[Pan_Z]

To anyone confused about the math, don't worry about it. All you do as a voter is cast 2 ballots, one for your local candidate of choice and one for your preferred party.

[echarts]

Not perfect, but far better than the House of Commons system called FPTP

[ZoldMcska]

Long live Scotland 🤘 🏁💪from hungary!!!! ♥♥ 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[jamesgray]

Can parties standing in constituencies choose to not be on the regional list if they do choose to game the system in a way?

[svokxz]

Are the constitutients supposed to be inside the region?

[johnfisher]

Why did you have a first choice and second choice and so on .so you could end up with your last choice gets inn so you don’t have a choice the SNP pick who they want inn

[mjo]

Love Scotland. Hoping they don’t leave the UK -couldn’t handle another Brexitplusplus..🤦

[OrenLikes]

Nice and fair (I think)!
I guess the seats by the regional votes are assigned by the parties themselves.
What ranking system do the parties use, if at all?
Here, in Israel, the parties that scream "democracy" the most are actually dictatorial in inner order of candidates...
Also, reserving seats for women and/or "minorities" is NOT democratic and "affirmative action" is racism!
This is "normal" voting where the least wanted party could win...
I've looked into approval voting, ranked voting, star voting, and score voting - but they are all about one winner = not suited for parliaments/multi-party seats.
Do you have recommendation for a multi-party system WITHOUT local/regional partitions = a country as a whole?

[johnnicolson]

It's simple you vote SNP and you get to leave the UK.

[Saiputera]

Labour are crying right now! They lost the popular vote in Scotland LMAO

[daviddack]

Scotland must Have it's own Freedom, We are part of the EU is time we Win for Once, Get out of the Cave !.

[ec]

Scotland independence !!! We had enough of uk

[petmottproperty]

It is full of nonsense - London gives you power to make a decision about "which color of bins to use for glass and which for paper" - Scottish future decisions still will be made by Londoners. IS IT A GOOD UNION? Unless you become fully independent.

[jamesneilsongrahamloveinth]

Just imagine if there was a government and first minister in Scotland who did not speak stridently to (and about) England, who did not preach separation, who emphasised cooperation and mutuality. How reassuring that would be . . .

[christopher]

John 3.16-21 Jesus saves repent seek him today
today is the day of salvation heaven and hell is real repent draw near to him seek while you still can