AV referendum

movilogo

I received polling invitation on 5th May for AV referendum.

Can someone please explain on exactly what it asks referendum for?

I searched on web about Alternative Vote referendum but could not find any simple explanation of anything which can influence my choice.

Thanx

B_Blank

AV is just some voting system. I wouldnt bother voting in it. I dont vote, its a waste of time.

Niksan

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1371659/Alternative-Vote-reform-simple-AV-RSVP-RIP.html pretty much sums it up.

chewmylegoff

movilogo wrote: »

I received polling invitation on 5th May for AV referendum.

Can someone please explain on exactly what it asks referendum for?

I searched on web about Alternative Vote referendum but could not find any simple explanation of anything which can influence my choice.

Thanx

AV: you rank all of the candidates in terms of your preference for them.

in order to win, a candidate must get more than 50% of the votes cast.

so they count all the votes and see if someone got more than 50%. if noone did, they take whoever came last, and redistribute his votes between the others.

so A, B, C

A gets 34%
B gets 34%
C gets 32%

C gets knocked out, all of C's votes redistributed based on whoever the people who voted for C put down as their second choice.

So all of C's voters put A as second choice and B as third choice

A gets 66%
B gets 34%

A wins.

in simple terms it means that the lib dems will probably win a lot more seats and we will have coalition politics forever.

although since their share of the vote is currently projected at about 5% maybe not.

Blacklight

chewmylegoff wrote: »

in simple terms it means that the lib dems will probably win a lot more seats and we will have coalition politics forever.

Which is exactly why I'll be voting no.

Mrs_Arcanum

It could also mean some so called safe seats are no longer safe & the incumbent MP will no longer have a job for life.

Might make them actually work for your vote!

movilogo

Well, in this case I should go out and say NO (i.e. I want existing system to stay).

However, the people who don't understand this (i.e. vast majority of people in the country) won't bother going to vote.

But all who are in favour of AV system, will go out and cast their vote.

That will make AV win!

So people please go out and cast your vote if you want to say no to AV.

angrypirate

movilogo wrote: »

Well, in this case I should go out and say NO (i.e. I want existing system to stay).

However, the people who don't understand this (i.e. vast majority of people in the country) won't bother going to vote.

But all who are in favour of AV system, will go out and cast their vote.

That will make AV win!

So people please go out and cast your vote if you want to say no to AV.

Why? What exactly is your reasoning? Is it simply coz it could potentially lead to more coalition governments? Im curious. Im not sure which way to vote and other than leading to coalition governments im yet to hear a good arguement from the no camp.

chewmylegoff

angrypirate wrote: »

Why? What exactly is your reasoning? Is it simply coz it could potentially lead to more coalition governments? Im curious. Im not sure which way to vote and other than leading to coalition governments im yet to hear a good arguement from the no camp.

there is no perfect system.

currently first past the vote appears to screw people who vote liberal democrats who don't get the number of seats that their % of the vote might suggest.

AV looks to me as though it would screw people who vote tory.

although this does assume that people would vote in the same way in AV elections as they currently do in the FPTP system.

i think, if you're going to scrap the current system because it is unfair to one section of voters, then you might as well get rid of consituency boundaries and have full PR and be done with it.

if the reason to have a change is to make sure that the number of MPs that each party has in parliament correctly represent the way the electorate voted then PR solves the problem, whereas AV is just another botched attempt.

of course then you wouldn't have a local MP to moan to and accountability would be severely reduced, but no system is perfect.

movilogo

This link is quite explanatory.

http://refusingthedefault.blogspot.com/2011/02/arguments-against-alternative-vote.html

FTBFun

I'm going to vote yes, as at least its the right direction for proportional representation.

One argument I've heard from the "No" camp is that it could lead to some seats for the BNP. Unfortunately that is democracy for you, and rather than try and keep out the BNP via artificial means, the mainstream parties should actually have a look at why they're getting votes in the first place.

edit: I focussed on the BNP but any other extremist party will do e.g. respect