On April 18, United Kingdom prime minister Theresa May announced that the country will hold a general parliamentary election on June 8, 2017. The decision is a surprise. The contrast between the United States and the United Kingdom could hardly be more pronounced, in the variable of advance knowledge of election dates. In the United States, if there were a general election set for June 8, 2017, federal law would require that ballots be sent to overseas absentee voters no later than April 24, which is only six days away. Obviously the U.S. needs months and months more preparation than the United Kingdom.
British parties already have chosen their national leaders some time ago, so that makes a snap election somewhat easier. But the British parties still need to choose their parliamentary candidates. British ballot access is so simple and uncomplicated, that helps also. Candidates for House of Commons need 10 signatures and a filing fee. All candidates are treated equally, relative to ballot access.
Britain does not afford special privileges to political parties. Individual candidates file on their own behalf. This obviously does not prevent voters organizing into political parties to support candidates.
The filing fee (we call it a ‘deposit’) is £500 and is returned if a candidate gets more than 5% of the vote
@Jim – yes candidates do file individually but can only use a national party logo and description if they have a certificate from their national party which have been registered by the UK Electoral Commission. There are also rules to prevent individual candidates using something as their ‘description’ that is too close to a registered party name that could confuse voters.
And on the ballot paper candidates are listed alphabetically by surname. No higher placement for being an incumbent for example.
And in contrast the the US we have no early voting, no on the day registraion / provisional ballots and absentee ballots (postal votes) have to be received by 10PM on election night. Also no need to present any form of ID.
@ChrisInEngland,
The use of party designation is relatively new (1969).
Incidentally, I came across this research by the Electoral Commission on how voters recognize parties on a ballot.
http://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0005/191651/Party-identifiers-research-Report-FINAL-WEBSITE.pdf
Does the Loony Party still run candidates? I like that Britain lines up the candidates from all of the parties on stage while the final results are being read. Serious and joke candidates side by side.
The OMRLP website has already commented on the impending election.
https://www.omrlp.com/
In 2015, they had 16 parliamentary candidates, though none were elected.
The best part is the rosettes worn by the candidates, and that the candidates are introduced in inverse vote order. And then a major party candidate gets a few percent of the vote, and a _very_ serious candidate steps forward with a sheepish grin.
At the declaration the results are given in the order the candidates are listed on the ballot paper not in the order of the number of votes they received.