Exercise 3: Why an Evenly-Spread Popular Party Struggles Under FPTP — Possible Solution
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The chapter's own real, verified mechanical-effect explanation applies
directly to this exact scenario. Under FPTP, seats are won district by
district, with only the single candidate receiving the most votes in
each individual district actually winning a seat - real, genuine
support that doesn't happen to be concentrated enough to place first
in any specific district produces zero representation, no matter how
large that support is in total across the country.

The chapter's own real example makes this concrete: a party receiving
5% of the vote nationwide, if that support is spread evenly and
thinly across every district rather than concentrated in a smaller
number of them, can end up with zero real seats - because in every
single district, that 5% is outnumbered by other parties' own larger,
concentrated local support, and coming in second or third everywhere
still wins nothing under a plurality system. By contrast, the chapter
notes, a smaller regional party with fewer total votes overall, but
support concentrated in a handful of districts, can actually win real
seats there specifically because it places first in those particular
districts.

A genuinely popular party facing this exact structural problem could
have very real, substantial nationwide support - genuinely more total
votes than a smaller regional party - and still end up with far fewer
seats, or none at all, purely as a mechanical consequence of how FPTP
counts and allocates votes district by district rather than
nationally. The party's own popularity isn't in question; it's the
geography of where that popularity is distributed that determines
whether FPTP's own mechanics translate it into actual seats.

ANSWER: A small but genuinely popular party with support spread evenly
across every district would likely win few or no seats under pure
FPTP, because the mechanical effect means votes are counted and
allocated district by district - coming in second or third everywhere,
even with substantial total nationwide support, produces zero seats,
while a smaller party with the same or fewer total votes concentrated
in a handful of districts can win real seats there specifically.

WHY THIS WORKS AS AN ANSWER
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This applies the chapter's own real mechanical-effect example
(geographically spread support losing to concentrated support) to
explain the specific outcome for an evenly-spread party, rather than
simply asserting that FPTP disadvantages smaller parties in general.