I support Preferential Transferable Voting [AV] as a way that
people can vote for candidates and platforms that most
represent of their values. They could vote for the selection of
candidates in their own preferential order. Although their
candidate may or may not get in, the majority of the voters will
have an outcome that they all can live with.
One example of where Preferential Transferable Voting would have
brought a beneficial outcome to a large number of people
can be found several years ago here in Canada when the people of
Thunder Bay, Ontario voted on what they wanted their city to be
called. There were several options on the ballot but people were
divided in opinion primarily between three choices; "The Lakehead",
"Lakehead", or the current name.
While in the end Thunder Bay won, it was only by a small majority
and had they been given the opportunity to rate their options in
order of preference, it is almost certain that the
large number of people divided between "The Lakehead"
and "Lakehead" would have compromised and been satisfied with
either one.
Thus, had Preferential Ballot Counting been in place, a greater
number of people would have been satisfied with the result
achieved.
As the number of Candidates and political parties grow, some
government representatives are being elected with as little as 30%
of the popular vote.
How does the Preferential Transferable Voting Work?
Let us say we have 5 canadidates:
Candidate #1, Candidate #2,
Candidate #3, Candidate #4, Candidate #5
My ballot might be in ballot order 3 2 1 5 4 with 4 being my
last place choice.
If the first candidate that I like very much is dropped on the
first count then I can still have a opportunity to participate in
the election with my second, third, forth, fifth preferences. I can
freely place my vote not fearing that my vote will be thrown away
and perhaps I could live with one of the other candidates but not
that last candidate.
We live with choices and compromises in our life all the time. We
go to a restaurant and want to order a steak but the restaurant is
out of steak so our second preference is chicken.
I developed the software for the Reform Party of Canada and later
the Reform Alliance, now the conservative party of Canada on this
voting system. It produces acceptable results to most people that
have used it in over 500 Candidate selections and 5 National
Assemblies across Canada. In reviewing many of the elections,
ballots were clearly marked in order of preference by 99.9% of all
people that cast ballots.
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