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clear explanation of AV by Dan Snow
warleywitch
Posts: 2,541 Forum Member
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Pub or cafe? We use AV to make decisions every day, why should voting be different? Its simple. Say #yes2av on 5 May: http://bit.ly/kKqwI2
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warleywitch
Posts: 2,541
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Well at that point you're talking about PR.
And if one group went to the pub, while the others split off to the cafe...? Devolution, I guess?
Or Belgium. They should stick to making beer and chocolate, not governments.
But ask yourself - Is there really no consequence between choosing Tory or Labour? Is it just like choosing colours, or flavours of ice cream? A matter of preference? Or will you ACTAULLY decide not to vote Labour first and Tory 2nd, or vica versa and actually be making a compromise for the LibDems 2nd?.
Can you see the difference?
AV is a system of generating extra compromise votes for the compromise party (LibDems) when used for parliament. It's not like choosing which Pub etc.. to goto when used for elections.
AV gives you the opportunity to do both.
A simpler option however would have been to weight the voting power an MP has in Parliament according to the percentage of the vote they received - so someone with 60% of the vote would have twice the voting power of someone with 30% of the vote. Then voting for the person you want to win would have some influence in the final result as if it's not the winner you reduce their voting power.
It would also remove the overwhelming power marginal constituencies have in FPTP where the voting power of a voter is many times that of a vote in a safe seat as it's more likely to affect the final result.
I don't like AV because in reality a lot of people will be making a lot of compromise votes, by voting 2nd, 3rd etc.. for a compromise candidate, but the system values these votes the same allowing a all-things-to-all-people/compromise party like the LibDems to collect them and smugly say they have the full support of over 50% of the electorate.