UK Referendum On Voting
Britain is having a rare event on May 5th: the Referendum on the voting system for the UK Parliament.
Currently elections are decided by the “first passed the post” method, which in a multiple party system results in many seats being won by people who receive a good deal less than half the votes. This referendum would change the system to what they are calling Alternate Voting, a form of preferential voting.
As this is a bit complicated, British voters might want to reference an instructional video, like this one that was recorded for moggies.
Even if you aren’t a moggie, if you can vote in Britain you should. I like preferential voting systems, but it’s your system, and your vote.
3 comments
Oh, yes, totally unfair system, which is why it is used to elect all of the party leaders and hence the Prime Ministers of Britain [/sarcasm]
Somehow it is unsurprising that Duffy prefers a system that almost always assures, in races with more than two candidates, a victory by a candidate who does not even achieve a majority among voters. That’s “democracy”? really? that’s a funny name for a system that frequently elects a candidate against whom a majority of voters voted. Democracy, MFA!
For what it’s worth, FPTP is the most common system in America, too, and here, too, it is favored by candidates who couldn’t get a legitimate majority if their lives depended on it. At least Preferential/Alternative/IR voting* has a reasonable chance in single-winner, multi-candidate races of reflecting something like the will of the people. FPTP is almost guaranteed NOT to produce that result if there are three or more candidates.
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* (I hate the term “instant runoff voting,” but that is a fairly common usage you need to look for if you’re searching the web.)
As Badtux keeps pointing out, FPTP is designed to preserve the two-party system, which is why preferential voting is becoming quite common in primaries, but not in general elections. We have it in our primaries as “IR voting”.
If you use preferential voting you don’t need separate primaries, so it would save a lot of money.