Political

Tactical voting set for a boost?

Earlier this month I wrote,

For a long time after David Cameron’s election to leader of the Conservative Party there was widespread talk of “tactical unwind”, that is how his changes to the Conservative Party may result in much less anti-Tory tactical voting at the next general election. It’s one of the range of reasons that many Tories quote for believing that they will do better in terms of seat numbers than the overall vote numbers suggest.

However, what’s struck me for some time is how the overall political campaigning is playing out in a way that is likely to rewind the unwind.

At the time there was some opinion poll evidence to support the idea of tactical rewind. Two more recent pieces of news reinforce the picture I’m getting from canvassers around the country that, as far as people tactically voting for the Liberal Democrats is concerned, there are good grounds for optimism.

Most of the public willing to vote tactically
A majority of the public are willing to vote tactically, to help guarantee an election outcome to their liking, new Politics Home research reveals.

52 per cent would be ‘likely’ to ‘vote tactically at the general election if it would would help the party that they support’. Meanwhile, 41 percent say they would be unlikely to do so. [Politics Home]

and

Last week the left-wing campaign group Compass asked its members whether Compass should advocate tactical voting in the forthcoming general election…

Today the pressure group reveals that they have a “clear result”.

72% (467) of members backed the call for tactical voting with only 14% (93) against. [Liberal Conspiracy]

That’s all very good news when it comes to turning a healthy share of the national vote into a healthy number of seats.