This is a great activity to get your group thinking about democracy and different ways of voting as well as enjoying some treats! You could try a different form of voting each week to decide the biscuit or snack that the group enjoy or do this as a one off activity.
What to do
Get together around 5 packets of biscuits (make sure they are different from each other, e.g. some with chocolate, some sandwich biscuits, some plain etc.). Ensure that they are suitable for all in the group to eat and that you have enough of each for everyone to get a biscuit each.
Explain to the group that at the end of the session there will be a chance to eat the biscuits but first they will vote on which one they want the most.
There are many different forms of voting and coming to a decision can the group name any? In most elections people vote anonymously, via a secret ballot. Will you use this system or ask people to put up their hands, or make another public show of their choice? What might be the benefits of a secret ballot? Of course if you have chosen consensus decision making then this is a public discussion.
If you have decided on a secret ballot then create your ballot papers with options of all of the biscuits on offer. The papers all need to be the same with a space for people to put their vote without anyone knowing who they are.
Election Day
Firstly, make a space where people can vote privately. The next step is to get a box where the papers can be safely put until the votes need to be counted. Finally, count the votes twice to make sure you haven’t missed any.
Results
Reveal the results of your vote. How does everyone feel? What decisions have you made? Was this a satisfying way to come to a decision? What else could you decide in this way?
Voting Systems
There are lots of different systems for voting. You could discuss these with your group. There are different ways of casting your vote, of counting them, and of deciding who has won. There are some really great descriptions of different voting systems, how they work and where they are used on the Electoral Reform Society website. Here are a few of the most used systems:
First past the post — whoever gets the most votes wins overall, even if they only win by one vote.
For example — A class of 12 children were choosing what snack to have at after school club. 3 voted for satsumas, 4 for apple slices and 5 for toast. Under this system everyone would have toast as it got the most votes.
First past the post is what we use in general elections in the UK. Each constituency (area) in the country votes for their MP. Whichever party has the most MPs is asked to form the government. Sometimes they might not have the most votes overall in the country, but their MPs have won by at least one vote in the most constituencies.
Proportional Representation — the decision is made based on the proportion of votes each option gets.
For example — A class of 12 children were choosing what snack to have at after school club. 3 voted for satsumas, 4 for apple slices and 5 for toast. Under this system everyone would have 1/4 of a satsuma, 1/3 of an apple and 5/12 of a slice of toast.
Proportional Representation is the most common electoral system — 80 countries use it. There are lots of different versions of it, and it often means that smaller parties get seats in parliament as well as the bigger ones.
Single Transferable Vote — everyone ranks the options in order of their preferences.
Their first choice gets a ‘1’ their second choice a ‘2’ and so on. An option needs a set amount of votes to get chosen. This is known as the quota. Each voter has one vote. Once the counting has finished, any candidate who has more number ones than the quota is elected. But, rather than ignore extra votes a candidate received after the amount they need to win, these votes move to each voter’s second favourite candidate and so on until all the choices are decided.
For example — A class of 12 children were choosing what snack to have at after school club. 3 voted for satsumas, 4 for apple slices and 5 for toast. Under this system satsumas are now eliminated as they are the least popular. Everyone who put satsuma as their first choice put apple as their second because they really wanted fruit. That means that now apple slices has 7 votes and toast only 5. Toast is eliminated and everyone gets apple slices.
Ireland and Scotland use Single Transferable Vote and it is a form of proportional representation.
Consensus Decision Making — this isn’t a voting system as such, but is a way of making decisions without voting, by trying to find a solution that everyone is happy with.
For example — If a class of 12 children were choosing what snack to have at after school club they would discuss the merits of each option, with everyone getting to have their say. As a group they would try to come to a decision, or a compromise, that everyone was happy with. This might result in one of the original options, or a combination of several, or a different snack all together.
Often, organisations that do not believe in hierarchies use consensus decision making when they want to ensure everyone is involved in and owns the decisions that are making. It can be a slow process but often comes up with exciting and different results. If you want to have a go at consensus decision making, try our activity Fist-to-Five.