to anyone living in BC and voting tomorrow!

[joeyconnick]

I wanted to put this in the "LGBT News, Rights, Issues and Equality" forum because I think it definitely is a LGBT issue but thought it might be a little too jurisdiction-specific.

Anyway, as those of you in British Columbia hopefully know, we have a provincial election happening tomorrow and it's very crucial you vote! It's more important you vote on the electoral reform referendum than it is that you vote for a political candidate in your riding, even. That being said, I hope as people concerned about queer rights you'll vote NDP. I know people are concerned about the environment and might want to vote Green but honestly under the current system, a vote for the Greens is a vote for the BC Liberals (because it splits the left vote) and the NDP and the Greens have pretty similar environmental platforms.

However, whether you are a Green or NDP supporter, the crucial vote tomorrow is on electoral reform, namely whether we should adopt BC-STV or not. Here are some cool videos on why you should vote for it and how it works:

+ YouTube Video

+ YouTube Video

Step-by-step how it works (I love this one but then I'm nerdy that way!):

http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/flash/bc-stv-count

So basically, BC-STV is a proportional voting system, where parties get (roughly, no voting system is perfect) a percentage of seats in the legislature that matches their share of the popular vote. This is particularly important in BC if you consider the third-to-last and second-to-last elections we've had: in 1996, the NDP got less of the popular vote than the BC Liberals (39.45% vs. 41.82%) but formed the government (39 seats to 33 seats). In 2001, it was even more distored (and horrific, if you were at all left-wing): the BC Liberals got 58% of the vote but held 77 out of 79 of the seats, i.e. 97% of them! So basically there was no opposition party from 2001 to 2005 (and what happened in the province reflects that quite noticeably).

The coolest things about BC-STV (like all STV systems) is that you don't vote for just one person, you get to rank people in order. So if you support the Greens but don't want the BC Liberals to get in, you would just rank all the Green candidates highest and then rank all the NDP ones next. That way if none of the Green candidates get in, your vote will then transfer to the NDP candidates rather than (as in the current system) get tossed because the person you picked didn't have enough votes to get elected.

This also lets you vote for cool independent candidates who are longshots and not have to worry that you are throwing your vote away because you can always list other candidates at a lower rank.

So all in all, it weakens the power of political parties. In this day and age, I believe that's a very good thing.

New Zealand and Ireland already have STV systems, the lucky bastards. As do certain states in Australia.

Anyway, feel free to ask me questions if voting systems turn your crank (as they obviously do mine *grin*).

[Nitro]

BC-STV is not a proportional voting system. What it does do is make the voting more fair and make your vote count more than under the current system.

The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform made this particularly easy to understand animation, including mathematical formulae used in the distribution of votes.

http://citizensassembly.bc.ca/flash/bc-stv-count

Having read the material pro and con, seen the formulae, and even spoken with a former election scrutineer that has seen STV in practice, I think BC-STV is right for the province.

[Greggers]

Im voting for NDP AND STV

My parents have sat me down in a chair and preached to me about keeping this "First past the post" crap as well as voting liberal (They know ill never vote conservative cause i voice my out-rage against them in general, so they figure in my riding if i vote liberal atleast ill have thrown my vote away)

Well, needless to say im not a sheep. I dont follow. So i did my research too, and i think STV is not perfect but -better- than what we currently have. My only issue is my riding being clumped with aldergrove and some other shit? That worries me.

BUT THE MAIN THING IS GO GO NDP >_<

[joeyconnick]

Originally Posted by Nitro

BC-STV is not a proportional voting system. What it does do is make the voting more fair and make your vote count more than under the current system.

Uhm... yeah it is: read the second paragraph right here : http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/re...-FactSheet.pdf

Right from the horses' mouths, as it were.

Originally Posted by Nitro

The Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform made this particularly easy to understand animation, including mathematical formulae used in the distribution of votes.

http://citizensassembly.bc.ca/flash/bc-stv-count

And the point of reposting that URL that I had already included in my message above was...?

[acorn7]

Wow, that sounds pretty cool! Wish we had that in Quebec.

[Nitro]

Originally Posted by joeyconnick

Uhm... yeah it is: read the second paragraph right here : http://www.citizensassembly.bc.ca/re...-FactSheet.pdf

Right from the horses' mouths, as it were.

In a way the Citizens' Assembly is right, the results under STV mimmic actual support for the given candidates. My point is that while BC-STV is more fair, a truly proportional system would not let any validly cast vote be "wasted".

As for the double posted link, I misread it is all.

[joeyconnick]

Originally Posted by Nitro

In a way the Citizens' Assembly is right, the results under STV mimmic actual support for the given candidates. My point is that while BC-STV is more fair, a truly proportional system would not let any validly cast vote be "wasted".

Is there any system that is truly proportional? I'm not an electoral system expert but it seems like any electoral system would only be approaching the perfection of not letting any vote be wasted--given that people are elected, as opposed to fractions of people. There are 85 seats in the BC Legislature--what if one party got 1% of the vote? How do you have 0.85 of a MLA?

My understanding having done some cursory reading is that no electoral system is capable of being perfect, so somewhere along the line trade-offs get made.

[Nitro]

Originally Posted by joeyconnick

My understanding having done some cursory reading is that no electoral system is capable of being perfect, so somewhere along the line trade-offs get made.

You nailed it. Any system has trade-offs, either in practicality, accountability, power distribution and whatever else.

[Kenko]

We have a provincial election coming up on June 9.
Nothing really exciting going on. No plebiscites on anything, and it will probably end up being NDP minority. Our riding will probably go with the incumbent Liberal.