News release

Assembly probes voting systems

Members of BC's Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform just concluded their third weekend of meetings at which they examined in detail two of the five major families of electoral systems, plurality and majority systems, and heard from a leading expert on why voters vote – or not.

In their next round of meetings – February 21 and 22 in Vancouver – Assembly members will focus on the remaining three types of electoral systems used in various democracies around the world: proportional representation systems, single transferable vote systems and mixed systems.

While early electoral systems were mainly based on the plurality principle, during the 19th century, majority systems became more popular. Proportional representation systems were widely adopted in the early part of the 20th century – often at the time the right to vote was being expanded. They were seen as a way of ensuring that no one group would be able to capture a majority. In the last decade of the 20th century, there was a sudden revival of interest in electoral system change – with much of the focus on proportional and mixed systems.

In evaluating electoral systems, suggested UBC political science professor Ken Carty, the Assembly should consider the impact of each system on the working of government, how political parties would function and how voters would respond. "We need to think about what kind of politics we want in BC. It’s the answers to these kinds of questions that should drive the decisions regarding what kind of electoral system we want."

The fundamental principle of majority systems is that the winning candidate must obtain over 50% of the vote. This may mean, when there are more than two candidates, some process for eliminating the least popular candidates and redistributing their votes to the remaining candidates – either through a second round of voting or through a system where voters rank candidates on the ballot in order of preference.

"A problem with majority systems is that you don’t always get the most chosen candidate, but rather the least disliked," joked political scientist Campbell Sharman in addressing the Assembly.

British Columbia’s electoral system is a plurality system – the system currently in use throughout Canada, both federally and provincially.

In plurality systems, individual candidates seek election in their electoral district and the winning candidate in each district is the one with the most votes – even if they get less than 50 per cent of voter support. This can result in such anomalies as a party achieving sufficient seats to form a majority government with less of the popular vote than the opposition party – as happened in BC in 1996. Plurality systems, however, do result in stable governments, electoral accountability and strong constituency representation.

Guest speaker and renowned expert on voter behaviour, André Blais from the University of Montreal, told the Assembly that the decline in voter turnout is a world-wide phenomenon. Research has lead Blais to conclude that the major cause of this decline among younger citizens is the weakening sense that voting is not just a right but a civic duty. "Older adults, even if they are cynical and uninterested in politics, feel it is their duty to vote. That sentiment is weakening in younger generations."

"Don’t be too confident," Blais cautioned the Assembly, "that electoral reform will be the cure for declining voter turnout."

Assembly member Tom Townrow, aged 23, observed that, among his friends, those who voted were those who discussed issues around the dinner table with their families.

Blais also noted that the research points to the effectiveness of old-style door-to-door campaigning in increasing voter turnout.

Members peppered Blais with questions, such as:

On Saturday, the Assembly decided to hold an extra-ordinary meeting immediately following the 49 public hearings (to be held throughout the province during May and June) to review and discuss what they had heard from British Columbians. Assembly members voted by an overwhelming majority to hold this meeting in Prince George.

All other meetings of the Assembly are held in Vancouver at the Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue at 580 West Hastings Street in downtown Vancouver and are open to the public on a "first-come, first-seated" basis.

In a series of six weekend meetings from January through March, Assembly members are learning about electoral systems and the political and legislative context in which they operate. Following the public hearings and the meeting in Prince George, they will reconvene for up to five weekends of deliberation in the fall.

Assembly members must decide by December 15 if they will propose a change to BC’s current system of translating votes into seats in the Legislature. If they recommend a change, it will be the subject of a referendum for all voters in the 2005 provincial election. Any change approved by the voters would take effect with the 2009 BC election.

The Assembly's 160 members – 80 men and 80 women – were randomly selected from the voters’ list and come from all regions of the province.

British Columbians can learn along with the Assembly by accessing reading and presentation materials from Assembly meetings on the Citizens’ Assembly website