How did the electoral voting system work in 1833?

In 1833, after electoral reform in 1832, the United Kingdom used the First Past The Post system (the candidate with the most votes wins, even if they do not have more than half of all the votes cast) to return members to the House of Commons, as it continues to do today.

However, in 1833, the vast majority of constituencies elected more than one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons. In these constituencies, every elector still had a single vote, but instead of just the candidate who wins the most votes being elected, the candidate who won the second highest number of votes won the second seat, the third highest won the third seat etc. This distorted representation in the House of Commons and had a profound impact on the electoral system. Furthermore, at the time, certain universities were entitled to elect Members to the House, a practice abolished in the 20th century.

In 1833, there were 658 Members of Parliament representing a total of 401 parliamentary constituencies - of these 401, 1 elected 4 Members, 7 elected 3 Members, 240 elected 2 Members and 153 elected a single Member.