Thread by @uk_domain_names

Understanding the European Elections
- PR by region (except in NI)
- MEPs in each region win their seats according to the d'Hondt method
- Small parties can only get 0-1 MEP per region under d'Hondt
- Threshold to gain an MEP depends on vote distribution *within that region*

- You vote, in your region, for a party not a candidate
- Candidates are allocated from party lists. Each party standing in a region has put forward a list of candidates in a particular order. If they win 1 MEP, the top candidate gets in. 2 MEPs, top 2 candidates get in. etc.

- Better to do well in a particular region or regions than uniformly average (e.g. 7% of the national vote could give a party 0 MEPs if that's also 7% in each region, but several MEPs if it's 15% in a couple of regions and 0% in the rest)

- So strategically it makes sense to support the pro-Remain parties that are strongest within each region *unless* they are already doing very well (in which case maybe vote for second strongest)
- In other words, there's no one single "best party to vote for" answer for all UK.

- To get to grips with the European election process, forget everything you know about local elections & general elections!
1) No party will ever get a majority of MEPs, unlike in a GE
2) Main issue is Brexit (unlike a local election)
3) Tactical voting can be quite effective.

4) National vote share is a very distant second to regional vote share, which is all-important. NVS is just for the history books. Regional vote share gives the chance at MEPs. So again, *think tactically*.

And finally, Brexit is too important to be tribal. It really is. So if the best party to vote for in one region is the Greens, another region is the Lib Dems, and another is Change UK (hopefully we'll see regional polling before too long) that's who you should vote for!

Note: previous tweet is valid even if you're a paid up member of a particular party. We're talking about the European elections only, not the local elections on Thursday nor a hypothetical GE. European elections are the closest proxy we're guaranteed to get to another referendum!

Important: don't waste your vote on independents or minor parties. The vote thresholds to win an MEP (over 100,000 votes even in the "easiest" region) are far far too high for them to ever get there. So choices are Lib Dems, Green, or (if their poll numbers look good) Change UK.