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Submission THYER-0214 (Online)

Submission By Norman Thyer
AddressNelson, BC,
Organization
Date20040420
CategoryElectoral system change
Abstract
A mixed electoral system, as used in New Zealand and Germany, with two votes, one for a party and one for a local representative [MMP], would achieve a better relation between number of votes and number of seats in the legislature. [2 pages]

Submission Content
(1) Improving the present system

One problem with our present system is that we have only one vote to cover at least three choices:

  • Who we want to represent our area
  • Which party we want to form the government
  • Who we want to be Premier
The last two are usually closely related. It appears that a mixed system, as used in New Zealand and Germany, with two votes, for party and local representative [MMP], would greatly remedy this particular problem, as well as achieving a better relation between number of votes and number of seats.

(2) Comments on Preferential Ballots

A Preferential Ballot has been mentioned as one possibility. In principle it has many good points, but there could be many practical difficulties too.

On the ballot paper, the voter enters numbers to indicate his/her order of choice. It would have to be made clear that "1" refers to the most favoured candidate, and not the least favoured.

Different people have different handwriting styles. Some people write "1" with an initial upstroke, and it may be difficult to decide whether an entry is a "1" or a "7". Also I have encountered cases where a "4" could be confused with a "9", or even a "7".

The handwriting problem associated with a preferential ballot could be overcome by using a ballot with the design illustrated in:


What happens when the voter does not enter a consecutive sequence? If a voter entered "1, 2, 2, 4" instead of "1, 2, 3, 4" because he considered his second and third choices to be equal, would that choice be valid, or would it be a spoiled ballot? There are many other possibilities, and the criteria for spoiled ballots could be quite complicated.

If the outcome is not decided on the first count, the counting process could become quite long and tedious.

Many of these problems could be overcome by using computers. However, computer voting has its problems too. I have come across several articles on this topic. They are too extensive to include here, but they are available on my personal website at:


Is a non-party system being considered as one

possibility? How is it working in Nunavut?

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