Last week, hundreds of thousands of people turned up at their local polling stations to choose Andy Burnham's successor as Greater Manchester's Mayor.

The crown has since been passed to Labour politician Bev Craig, who won almost two-thirds of the overall vote share.

But it's clear from the statistics published by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority that not everybody understood what they were doing with their ballots. This year's vote was carried out using the 'supplementary voting system' – meaning everyone could choose a first and a second preference.

Yet more than 4,400 people's votes for the Greater Manchester Mayoral election weren't counted because people placed their first and second vote crosses in the same column. Almost 13,000 other voters only used one of their two votes. While some may have chosen to only vote for one candidate, political experts believe it's likely many were not aware they had two votes until they arrived at their polling stations.

"When I looked at my ballot paper, I didn't think the system was very well explained," said Professor Rob Ford, a political science researcher at the University of Manchester. "And I noticed in media interviews ahead of the election that when people on the street were asked if they knew they had two votes, most weren't aware at all.

"For a significant number of people it's likely the first time they even thought about their second vote was when the ballot paper got put in their hand."

Greater Manchester has switched voting system twice over the past three mayoral elections, which has added to the confusion. In 2022, the Conservative government abolished the supplementary vote, claiming it was 'too complicated' and discouraged people from attending the vote.

But earlier this year, the Labour government re-instated the system because it avoids mayors being elected on mandates smaller than 50 per cent. At the time, Labour was accused of 'gerrymandering' and trying to benefit more established parties.

"It's fair to say a lot of people don't understand it," Prof Ford went on. "It means people have to 'game off' who they think will get to the second round.

"It's also not a system favoured by political experts and academics because it's not actually all that good at representing the preferences of the general public. There are better systems out there."

Part of it the issue is about people not understanding how the voting system works. Prof Ford explained there was likely a 'silent third category' of uncounted votes for those who cast their vote for a less popular candidate as their second choice. Only the two candidates with the largest number of votes in the first round go through to the second, meaning those votes are effectively thrown in the bin.

Part of it is also about communication – with political messaging about the process of voting simply not reaching the vast majority of voters.

The GMCA were invited to comment on their public communications around the election but did not respond. A spokesperson noted that every household was provided with 'election booklets' and social media posts explaining the system were regularly posted throughout the pre-election period.

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