News 
Political Tea Dancing
2 November 2006
We organised a ‘Political Tea Dancing’ event to raise awareness of the introduction of a new voting system, the Single Transferable Vote (STV), which will be used for the first time in local government elections in May 2007.
Research indicates that older people are more likely to be active voters. However, the introduction of STV and the complexity of the voting system being used in the 2007elections could cause some confusion.
Targeted towards older groups of people the event allowed them to learn about STV and practice filling in a mock ballot paper in a fun environment.
Working in partnership with Dundee City Council we matched a group of politicians (councillors and MSPs) with a dancing partner at a regular tea dancing event to perform a couple of traditional dances. Mock ballot papers were handed out to the audience and a presentation given on the STV system. The audience then voted for their favourite dancing duo using STV. After the ballot papers were counted and verified Dundee Councillor Helen Wright was crowned the tea-dancing champion!
The event generated large amounts of media coverage including BBC Radio Scotland, The Sunday Post and Courier & Advertiser.
Political Tea Dancing will be rolled out across Scotland in association with local authorities through a toolkit, which is being produced by Pagoda.
Pagoda also runs the press office for the Electoral Commission in Scotland.
