In North Tyneside voters are asked who they want, and as an extra treat they pick a back up. Simple enough.
As mentioned in previous posts, in the Euro election that's a little different.

To refresh. There are three seats to grab, currently held by one each from the big three parties.
Whichever party gets the most votes wins the first seat. As its a list system, if we assume Labour get the most votes they will take the first name on their list, Stephen Hughes, and he wins.
Then it gets crazy. Assume Labour gets 200,000, and wins the first seat.
European's vote a little differently to others, so what happens next is those 200,000 votes are halved and 100,00 put back in to compete for the second seat.
Assume here the Tories get 120,000 votes. They get the second seat, which goes to the top name on their list, Martin Callanan.
But there is still a third seat. So Labour's 100,000 are still in the running. If no party gets more than those votes they win the second seat. If say the Lib Dems get 101,000 votes they win the seat.

Oddly enough, if the fourth biggest party, say UKIP, gets 80,000 votes the Libs would still only have a 1,000 majority, that being the amount more under our example that Labour would have needed to get that seat.

With three seats and three main parties this type of system is a bit pointless in the North East, as it doesn't really achieve the aim of giving a wider section of voters a voice. But in other regions with say 7 MEPs it will allow the Greens and so on a chance.