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Wednesday 27 April 2011

Top columnist spreads "voter confusion" over AV

City Hall's election managers have written to journalists asking them to stop making the false claim that the Mayor of London is elected under the Alternative Vote system.

CLARIFICATION

We have noticed that there have been some inaccuracies recently regarding the election of the Mayor of London.  For any editorial stories you are writing, I wanted to clarify the voting system used in London to ensure there is no voter confusion ahead of the 2012 Mayoral elections.

The Mayor of London is elected by supplementary vote, not alternative vote.

Quite how this terrible misconception could have arisen in the minds of the British press is beyond me, although it may have something to do with statements like this one in the Daily Telegraph:

It is the system, I may as well admit, that is used in London mayoral elections. [AV] may be just about tolerable there; but I can see no case whatever for introducing it across the country.

An incredibly misleading and factually inaccurate statement written by er, the current Mayor of London Boris Johnson.

Perhaps City Hall's election managers could start by copying him in.

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