News release:  Easy as 1, 2, 3

STV vs. First Past the Post

If the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform recommends a new voting system for B.C. tomorrow (Sunday October 24) it will be the "Easy as 1, 2, 3" system: the Single Transferable Vote process.

Members on Saturday overwhelmingly chose the model STV system they have designed as preferable to their other potential model: a Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) system. With 154 sitting members voting, the count for STV was 123 to 31.

Tomorrow, the members will compare STV with the current system B.C. uses to translate provincial election votes into seats in the legislature. That's the Single Member Plurality (SMP) system, often known as First Past the Post. Then they will decide on their recommendation to the people of B.C. — whether to keep First Past the Post or to adopt STV.

"We will look at First Past the Post and we will do our very best to understand it and how it is serving the province," said Assembly chair Jack Blaney after Saturday's vote. "Then we will compare it with STV, and then we will vote on our decision."

If Assembly members do recommend a change, it will go to all voters in a referendum in the next provincial election on May 17, 2005. The government says that if voters then approve the change, it will introduce legislation so the new system can go into effect for the 2009 election. If Assembly members opt tomorrow to stay with the current system, then there would be no referendum.

The made-in-B.C. STV system was custom-built by members to meet the needs of B.C. and to address three over-riding values: "proportionality", local representation and voter choice. One member on Saturday called STV "the voter choice system".

STV in various formats is used in Ireland, Malta, Tasmania, the Australian Capital Territory and a number of municipalities. Ireland has had STV for most of the last century. Despite attempts by government to kill STV, the Irish have repeatedly voted to keep it.

The principle of STV is simple: Voters fill out the ballot by ranking candidates in the order of their preference (1, 2, 3, etc). Candidates are elected according to their support as expressed in the voters’ preferences. The system also offers proportionality — the concept that each party’s share of seats in the legislature should closely reflect its share of the popular vote.

Under STV, MLAs are elected in multi-member electoral districts. For example, if two current districts are combined, voters would elect two MLAs in their new district. The ratio of MLAs to citizens would not change.

The Assembly’s model would allow the size of electoral districts and the number of MLAs elected per district to vary across the province to reflect local and regional conditions. In sparsely populated areas, districts could comprise 2-3 MLAs and in denser urban districts as many as seven MLAs.

Districts with two MLAs, such as those anticipated in northern B.C., would still be smaller than federal electoral districts. This system would not result in any reduction in the number of MLAs representing rural areas.

The MMP system that members turned down Saturday would have given voters two votes: one for the party of their choice and one for their preferred constituency candidate. Sixty per cent of MLAs would be elected from constituencies (which would be fewer and larger) while 40 per cent would come from regional "party lists", to create proportionality. MMP is used in Germany, New Zealand, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Assembly.

Debate in the Assembly on Saturday centred on the members' stated priorities of local representation, proportional representation, and voter choice. Some representative comments:

Pro-STV: "It comes down to democracy to me. . . . Elections to me are about somebody who is representing me and my interests. I haven't yet found a party that really represents me and what I believe in. I see STV as allowing me to vote for a candidate who most closely represents what I like and what issues I would like brought forward."

Added another pro-STV member: "And the person is accountable to us and not to the party."

Pro-MMP: "It optimizes local representation and proportional representation. It makes it a more meaningful choice. I can vote for a candidate who knows local issues, and I can vote for a party representative as my second vote. I think it offers an incentive for parties to clean up their act."

And another pro-MMP member added: "And it produces Proportional Representation by design, not by coincidence, and with more reliability."

Several members stressed before the vote that they would support whatever system the Assembly finally recommends. As member Sam Todd of Burnaby put it: "It's chocolate cake and strawberry shortcake, so whichever way we go we win. It's win-win."

The Assembly also announced Saturday the first resignation of a sitting member: Paola Barakat of Richmond. Her resignation, for personal reasons, leaves the Assembly's membership at 159, plus chair Jack Blaney, for a total of 160.

The Assembly must produce by December 15 its final report, detailing and explaining the implications of its final recommendation to the people of B.C. Then the Assembly and its office disband.