Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Last pitch for STV (and why it's clearly more proportional than MMP)

I hope everyone will go out to vote in BC today, especially in favour of STV, because it's the most proportional system available.

Why STV is more proportional than MMP

One major problem with MMP, especially in the way it is used most, is strategic voting.

Under MMP, one makes two votes, one is by the single-winner-method (such as FPTP), the other is for the party.

Especially the FPTP candidate will often be selected strategically (as is currently the case in Canada) to not see one's vote wasted. By definition this vote is NOT a voter's first choice, but the choice the imperfect MMP system forces onto the voter.

It's transferable to beat strategic voting, stupid!
STV does away with strategic voting (this is the main part of the transferable part). One can, with confidence, vote for the person one really wants without being afraid of wasting ones vote by ranking their favourite candidates: their real choice with 1, their strategic choices with 2, 3, and so on. Only in case their favourite does not get elected, their strategic vote kicks in.

The negative effects of strategic voting under MMP are not visible in the Gallagher index, and therefore any claims that STV is less proportional based on the index are false.

Vote for STV

STV is not perfect, no electoral system is. But it's the most proportional electoral system that is compatible with BC's riding based voting system, and, even more important, we can vote for it today.

Now get off your ass, and vote for it!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...
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Erik said...

Scary Fundamentalist says:

The biggest drawback to STV that nobody has been able to address is the size of the ridings. None of the other examples of STV (Ireland, Malta, Tasmania), have enormous expanses of land like BC does.False.

This has been addressed everywhere (Google Results about 4,180 for: STV Super-riding).
So if you think it hasn't than your not paying attention.

Please get your facts straight first before posting again; for more disinformation we can simply read the Globe and Mail or the National Post or other idiot blogs.

Thank you.

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