According to the UK Parliament website, in the United Kingdom, a “parliamentary by-election happens when a seat in the House of Commons becomes vacant between general elections. This can happen when an MP [Member of Parliament]:
- resigns or dies
- is declared bankrupt
- takes a seat in the House of Lords
- is subject to a successful recall petition
- is convicted of a serious criminal offence.
“Until an election, an MP of the same party in a neighbouring constituency manages constituency matters.
“What is ‘moving the writ’?
The Chief Whip of the political party whose MP held the vacant seat starts the process of a by-election.
“This starts by ‘moving the Writ’, a motion requesting:
“that the Speaker do issue his Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown to make out a new Writ for the electing of a Member to serve in this present Parliament for the constituency of …. in the room of…”
“The Speaker puts the question to MPs to decide whether to agree to the motion.
“If MPs agree it becomes an Order for the Speaker. The Speaker then issues a Warrant to the Clerk of the Crown who then sends the writ to the Returning Officer.
“Serious practical difficulties also arise in the calculation of the size of a `voterate’ from polling figures alone, because of the nature of elections in double-Member constituencies. Even in a straightforward contest between two pairs of candidates not all freeholders would vote a ‘straight’ party ticket. Some cross-voting, or ‘split’-voting, would be inevitable, even in constituencies polarized by party interests.
“Pollbook analysis for the counties of Buckinghamshire and Westmorland in the years after 1701 shows an already low percentage of ‘split’ votes declining at every election but never disappearing completely.30 Other voters would ‘plump’ for their favoured candidate by casting a single vote. Calculations based on the votes cast for each candidate thus offer no more than a rough guide to the total number of freeholders polled.
“The method adopted in the constituency articles has been to add up all the votes cast and divide by the number of seats being contested, which produces a minimum figure. This obviously works best when four candidates have contested two seats. Three-cornered contests, and those rare occasions in which there were more than four candidates, make the arithmetic more problematic and the results even more approximate. “
All the above is well and good for present day elections, but what of one in the early 1800s, for example. There was no central system of transportation. No phone, not even telegraphs. TIME was often the enemy in these type of situations.
By-elections, when fought between two candidates over one seat, produce a precise aggregate of votes cast, but are by definition exceptional, their circumstances (with not every major interest in a county necessarily involved) conducive to a low turnout.
Each elector had two votes? I knew that each borough elected two representatives to the House of Commons, but what would be the point of the electors’ having two votes?
Good question, but without an easy answer.
These are double member constituencies. Or like London where 4 voters had to fill 4 seats. I think there were candidates for each seat and voters could vote for someone for each vacancy. I don’t know if this method changed before 1832. A by election concerned one seat so would involve one vote.
In a general election, I know each elector had two votes they could cast in filling a borough’s M.P. seats. What about in the case of a by-election? Say a M.P.s dies or retires, so there’s only one seat to fill, with one candidate being put forward by the Whigs and one by the Tories (For the sake of simplicity, I am not including every conceivable small third party here). Would electors still have two votes to cast?
Definitely yes, two votes, with which voters could vote straight (both votes to one party), split (one each for candidates of two different parties), or plump (cast only one vote for one candidate; the other vote goes unused). I agree with many of you reading this piece and still scratching your head in confusion. It seems to me, a by-election would give voters only one vote, but I cannot locate that information anywhere! If someone knows more on this topic, please share.
What Is a By-Election and Why Do They Happen?
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Every Woman Dreams... 