Does the new voting system work if thousands of people’s ballots didn’t count?

NewsGreater Manchester NewsPoliticsThousands crossed their ballots in the wrong way.19:25, 03 Aug 2026Last 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 an