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Submission VANDEVELDE-0330 (Online)

Submission By Mike VandeVelde
AddressHope, BC, Canada
Organization
Date20040507
CategoryElectoral system change
Abstract
I'm embarrassed that we could even come up with an idea like a 'wasted vote'.  The mixed member proportional [MMP] electoral system seems to be the one that most closely matches my personal feelings. [1 page]

Submission Content
I'm not overly concerned about the details and I'm not really interested in understanding the categories of election systems and the differences between them. I'm glad that the Citizen's Assembly is taking care of all of that -- thank you for all of your hard work.

What does get me excited is seeing my vote wind up useless. I'm embarrassed that we could even come up with an idea like a 'wasted vote' while holding ourselves up as a beacon of democracy. While I do feel that local representation is very important, I don't think the current trade off is worth it. If thousands and thousands of people vote for a smaller party I think that needs to count for something.

I think the idea of voting for someone you don't like in order to prevent the election of someone you like even less is disgusting. DISGUSTING. 'Strategic voting' is not what I think democracy should be about.

Rule of the majority is the bad side of democracy in my opinion. Democracy should mean every person can have input -- not just those people who are part of the 'in' crowd.

From what I've read (thank you to Adriane Carr and all the Free Your Vote people for their work putting information out there) mixed member proportional [MMP] seems to be the system that most closely matches my personal feelings. I don't consider myself an expert though -- that's what we have the Citizen's Assembly for. If there is a system that better matches my belief in the importance of local representation as well as my belief that no vote should be wasted I'd sure like to hear about it.

Thank you for the opportunity to make myself heard. Good luck to you all. Good luck to all of us.

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