Vote swapping/pairing

[d000hg]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vote_pairing
Vote pairing (or vote swapping, as it has also been called) is the method where a voter in one district agrees to vote tactically for a less-preferred candidate or party who has a greater chance of winning in their district, in exchange for a voter from another district voting tactically for the candidate the first voter prefers, because that candidate has a greater possibility of winning in that district.

It's not something I knew of until recently, is it legal? Anyone here done it?

[centurian]

It's not something I knew of until recently, is it legal? Anyone here done it?

How do you think Labour got such a whopping majority in 1997 despite only winning 43% of the vote - a bigger majority than Thatcher got in 1979 depsite Thatcher getting a higher share of the vote.

At the time, there was such anti-Tory feeling that many Labour / LD voters were voting tactically - basically voting for the opposite candidate if they were more likely to beat the Tory candidate.

[SueEllen]

It's not something I knew of until recently, is it legal? Anyone here done it?

It's not much use in the UK. Tactical voting is though.

[OwlHoot]

It's not something I knew of until recently, is it legal? Anyone here done it?

Sounds a bit like the Prisoner's Dilemma though, in that players can easily cheat.