London Mayoral Election 2021
From the BBC A "confusing" ballot paper is being blamed for a record number of rejected ballots in the mayor of London election.With only half the votes counted 56,358 first preference votes have been rejected - roughly 5% of the total votes counted.The mayor of London is elected on a Supplementary Vote system, where each voter can choose a first and second preference for mayor.This year's figure is just short of the current record for the highest number of rejected ballots in the 2004 mayoral election, when 56,874 first preference votes were rejected, roughly 3% of the total votes that year.Official figures show 47,091 votes were rejected this year because too many votes were cast.This year saw a record-breaking 20 candidates stand to become mayor of London.Professor Tony Travers, from the LSE Department of Government, said: "We already knew from previous elections that many people find the two preference opportunity in this election confusing."It would appear that this time the number of people using their vote wrongly, and therefore getting the whole vote not counted, is going to be even higher than last time."The whole purpose of voting is that everybody knows that their vote counts equally – that’s how the system works."Mary Harpley, who as Greater London Returning Officer has been in charge of running the mayoral election, said: "We know that the supplementary vote system used to elect the mayor of London can result in spoilt ballot papers.“In order to help London’s voters this year, we published clear ‘how to vote’ information in the booklet sent to every registered voter, in postal vote packs and on our website, worked in conjunction with major media organisations to run voter education information and supplied polling station staff with explanation notes to pass onto voters.“However, the record number of 20 mayoral candidates in 2021 made it necessary to split the Mayoral ballot paper into two sections.“The government intends to move to a first past the post system for the mayor of London election in 2024.”
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