If the European Parliament voting system were changed to an open-list system, many voters would switch their support from UKIP to the Conservative party

Britain currently uses a closed-list system for the European Parliament elections, allowing voters only to express support for parties as a whole. An open-list system would allow a voter to choose a candidate from one of the mainstream political parties, whilst still expressing her preferences on the European issue through the selection of a party. Since their exists substantial intra-party diversity, Jack Blumenau, Andy Eggers, Dominik Hangartner and Simon Hix ask whether voters behave differently if they were able to vote for individual candidates, rather than political parties as a whole? Through a new survey experiment, they show that if an open-list system were to be used (as it is in most European countries), then a significant portion of UKIP votes would end up switching to the Conservative party.