Vote Pairing

Vote pairing occurs when two people commit to voting in a mutually agreed upon manner. Vote swapping is a common example of vote pairing, where a voter in one district agrees to vote tactically for a less-preferred candidate or party who has a greater chance of winning in their district, in exchange for a voter from another district voting tactically for the candidate the first voter prefers, because that candidate has a greater possibility of winning in that district.

Vote pairing occurs informally (i.e., without binding contracts) but sometimes with great sophistication in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada and other places.

In the UK and Australia, pairing is the mechanism by which two members of parliament of opposing parties agree, with the consent of their party whips, to abstain from voting if the other one is unable to vote. Thus maintaining the balance, of votes if one or the other is unable to attend. A Three line whip would usually be excepted from this agreement. For MPs who are not paired a bisque, a rota system allowing absence is used.

Using UK elections as an example, tactical voting is often between the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. There may be one constituency in which the Labour Party and the Conservative Party candidates are running in a tight race, with the Liberal Democrat far behind. In another constituency, the Liberal Democrat and Conservative candidates may be in a tight race, with the Labour candidate far behind. A Liberal Democrat voter in the first constituency would agree to vote for the Labour candidate in exchange for a Labour voter from the second constituency voting for the Liberal Democrat candidate.

Tactical voting has been used since 2000 as a strategy for the U.S. presidential election, with voters from "safe" states, or nonswing states, voting for third-party candidates, and voters from states with contested races, or swing state, voting for the second-preference candidate of the voters from the third party. By the United States Electoral College for presidential elections, all of a state's votes go to the winning candidate for that state, no matter how close the margin was (Maine and Nebraska excepted). Often third-party candidates for president are unable to garner any Electoral College votes, but they can call attention to their causes by the total popular vote that they garner. In vote-pairing agreements, third-party supporters in swing states vote strategically with major-party supporters in nonswing states, so that the third party candidate can hopefully get more of the popular vote, while the major-party candidate can get more of the Electoral College vote.