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A Dead Heat In Derby!What do you do when two political parties win exactly the same number of votes?
This was the question teachers and students at Derby High School for Girls found themselves asking when their Mock Election produced a DEAD HEAT between the Conservative and the Liberal Democrat parties.
The cliff-hanger came about after the returning officer, Headteacher Colin Callaghan, disallowed a ballot paper that was incorrectly marked so that, with all votes counted, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats had exactly 108 votes each.
The question was what to do next. The students were surprised to learn from the Hansard Society that official practice if this were ever to happen in a real election would be for the names to be put back in to a hat and for the returning officer to draw a single name that would give that candidate’s party one extra vote.
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“I’m amazed that a real election would be decided this way,” said teacher Sue Bussey adding, “It just goes to show that every vote really does count.” At Derby High, the two contending candidates drew cards from a pack and the Conservative party got the lucky vote.
Despite the knife-edge result, the Derby High election was a big success. “It was fantastic with the voting queues stretching out of the hall,” said Dr Carrie Walker, “There was a real buzz all around the school.” One student commented, “It has raised issues such as what decides the young person’s vote and whether policies or the personalities of the candidates influence the voter most.”
Some of the students will be able to vote in the coming general election which made the Mock Election particularly interesting for them. One student said , “I will definitely make sure I vote at the next election because of the close result in the mock election.”
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