How do Elections work here?

A lot of Americans were confused on how the elections work over here, especially because there was a recent election which ended up in the a coalition government. I was too so I thought I would researh it.

A misconception some people have is that the Prime Minister(PM) is the equivalent to the U.S. President. The PM is the equivalent to the Majority Leader in the House of Representatives.

Before someone can vote, they have to register. People can register to vote when they are 16 but cannot vote until they are 18. You cannot vote if you are a member of the House of Lords.

When people vote, they have to vote in the polling stations where they live. If they are away they can do absentee voting. Polling stations are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. There were some issues with this as they are not allowed to be open past 10 p.m., so some people were still in line when the polling stations closed.

When people are voting, they vote for their local Member of Parliament (MP), equivalent to a State Representative. Whichever party (Labour, Conservatives, Liberal Democrats, other) wins the majority (has to wins at least 326 seats) is in charge of the House of Commons. The leader of the party becomes the Prime Minister.

This year made history because it ended up in a hung parliament, the last time this happened was 1974. The Conservatives and Liberal Democrats joined together to create a coalition government. Combined, the parties had enough seats to take charge of the House of Commons. If this did not happen, the Queen would have to choose who she felt had the most confidence in the House.

For more information about voting in the UK, click here.