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lborgia88
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
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Registration Date: 27-06-2007
Posts: 5991
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You got me interested, meridanday, and I hadn't heard about this referendum, so I looked it up.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_King...eferendum,_2011
It sounds, to me, a bit unduly complicated, asking voters to not merely pick the candidate they want to see elected but rather to rank all the candidates from first choice to last choice. But then, I suppose it does allow a voter more input, as in some circumstances, being the second choice of a lot of voters could help a candidate win.
I'll be curious to see how it goes on May 5!
This post has been edited 3 time(s), it was last edited by lborgia88 on 21-04-2011 at 12:49.
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21-04-2011 12:48
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Transmute Jun
Queen of the Bird Missiles
I am a Swan.
40 fics uploaded
Registration Date: 04-04-2007
Posts: 20978
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They have a 'ranked choice' voting system in San Francisco, for local government offices. It saves them money, because by California law, the winner of an election must receive 50% or more of the vote. So if there are multiple candidates running, then the top winner might only get, say, 30%, and then they have to hold a 'runoff' election in addtion to the regular election.
With the 'ranked choice' system, if the 'first choice' round doesn't yield a winner with 50% or more of the vote, they start moving to people's second choices, then third choices. By that time, they will eventually get someone with 50% support. Essentially, they're holding the regular election and the 'runoff' election at once.
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This post has been edited 1 time(s), it was last edited by Transmute Jun on 21-04-2011 at 13:31.
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21-04-2011 13:30
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green
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
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Registration Date: 15-11-2009
Posts: 7534
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Okies... thinking back to all the election ballots we fill out (we run Upper and Lower house elections at the same time...) I remember the Senate form.
It's rather large... think normal A4 height by about two foot....
It is divided into two parts and you only have to fill out one.
If you want, you can vote just for a party. That's simple, you rank the seven or so parties at the top and then, if they win, the party sorts out who represents them in that electorate.
If you want to vote for an individual, however, then you have to rank them all. I think the last one had about 35 candidates just for my electorate...
As for whether the system itself is liked or not... Well, it's just the system and it's the way it's always been done.... I guess, thinking logically about it, it does mean you can have a say in who actually represents you rather than just the party. Done properly, the people's choice would end up winning the seat, instead of someone the leader of that party owes a favour to...
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Exaggeration misleads the credulous and offends the perceptive. ~Eliza Cook
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21-04-2011 16:53
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meridianday
Galaxy Girl
I am a Devilstar.
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Registration Date: 27-06-2001
Posts: 1640
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Very interesting set of information... very interesting indeed, thanks everyone.
The reason I ask, is that the anti-proportional vote people are saying that only Australia and New Guinea (or somewhere close by) have proportional voting and that people dislike it and want to change to the simpler first-past-the-post system. You're giving me the impression that although the system is complex (Green, yours sounds far more complex than ours would be, we'd get a choice of 3-10 names and that would be it) you don't particularly dislike it.
With the system we currently have in the UK, the winner typically only gets 30-40% of the vote, and because of this many people vote tactically, for the candidate most likely to keep the candidate they really don't want to win, out. So, reasonably often, the winning candidate not only doesn't get a majority of the vote but also isn't the one that many people wanted even though they ended up voting for that person. Even a majority government would only get 30-40% of the total vote.
It sounds like what the leaflet says about voter numbers dropping might be because of the complexity of the forms, rather than increased general apathy.
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 Mallanox : "My mother was Irish and my father was an alien. I was an only child and I dress funny."
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21-04-2011 18:29
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Madilayn
Mistress of Ebil
I am a Swan.
24 fics uploaded
Registration Date: 01-02-2006
Posts: 3589
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100% correct Green.
We complain about voting here, but we know that at the end of the day, everybody has voted and so it truly is the voice of the people.
It may be old fashioned - pencil ("B" pencils) and paper, and lining up to start with to get marked off the roll - but so many times around the world there have been questions raised about the validity and security of electronic ways, but it works.
And works well enough that the UN actually uses Australian Electoral Commission staff and methods when it goes into countries to supervise elections.
I know that most Aussies are completely boggled that a country can say "we are a democracy" and yet voting is something that isn't compulsory - or there are constraints put on voting (having to register with a political party to be eligible to vote - how ludicrous is that!).
I think that in some ways, we are secretly quite proud of our system - and many people do take the time to vote the long way - rather than the simpler way that way introduced (i.e. rather than numbering each box, there is an alternative that you can just check the box of the party you want to win) - at least from the amount of time people tend to spend in the voting booths at election time.
Green is right - the electioneering is a pain in the neck, but there are plusses. Schools are voting places for us, and we can always guarantee that when we go to vote, the school will be running a sausage sizzle and a cake stall!
Which sort of makes up for the whole hassle!
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22-04-2011 07:46
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green
Gatchamaniac
I am a Condor.
0 fics uploaded
Registration Date: 15-11-2009
Posts: 7534
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Meridianday, preference voting is where the parties make deals with each other. We have the two big parties, Labor and Liberal.
Then we have the Greens (nope, don't actually vote for them if there is a better candidate...) plus a smattering of smaller, usually with a specific agenda, parties that may only run in a few electorates.
Those smaller parties, knowing they haven't got a snowballs' chance, will often give their votes to one of the bigger parties in exchange for concessions or seats in the new government... Even the Greens will team up with one of the big two in order to get some of their agenda addressed. As long as they are up front with what they are doing, this is actually legal...!
Cloud, I know how you feel about 'does your one vote really matter?' Then I remember - it does, because the ocean is made up of individual drops of water. When we get given the final numbers, regardless of whether my party won or not, I can say 'well - mine was one of those 45, 634 in my electorate' and know that 45,633 of my neighbours agreed with me. Some times... that's a small consolation - but at least I had my say in who runs my country.
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Exaggeration misleads the credulous and offends the perceptive. ~Eliza Cook
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24-04-2011 00:48
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