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March 25, 2008
Join the debate over at the Guardian
Michael White is enjoying his usual role of stirring things up, over at The Guardian. "PR is the only electoral reform that would actually matter" is the great title for his piece. He means it in relation to the other bits n bobs being proposed - Sunday voting et al - rather than in terms of his own support for it. Plenty of points to debate with him and you can post comments easily on his blog.
One correction to be made to his piece. And this we need to make clearly at the moment - as many journalists and politicians are confused. Michael says "AV - whose strengths and weaknesses London voters will demonstrate when they pick Ken or Boris on May 1". But Londoners vote using SV, the Supplementary Vote. A subtle but important difference. You only get to express two preferences and the second preference needs to be for one of the top 2 candidates, iotherwise it doesn't count. It is a system that leads to unnecessary tactical voting and wasted votes / spoilt ballot papers. For more see the AV and SV briefings on the ERS website.
Update: Former ERS press officer, Alex Folkes, has put up an excellent response on his own blog. Read it here.
Update 2: Labourhome is now hosting a lively debate thread on AV for the Commons. Join in over there.
Posted by malcolmclark on March 25, 2008
Comments
I think I have a correction to make to your correction. All the sources I've read so far suggest that the flavour of AV favoured is one in which there a first vote and then a second preference, with no mention of preferences beyond that- thus making it vulnerable to the same protest vote followed by 'real' vote for one of the two main parties problem as SV.
Posted by: Alex Parsons at March 25, 2008 01:09 PM
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