{"id":1482,"date":"2017-07-03T10:37:43","date_gmt":"2017-07-03T17:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/?p=1482"},"modified":"2017-07-03T10:42:05","modified_gmt":"2017-07-03T17:42:05","slug":"voting-systems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/2017\/07\/voting-systems\/","title":{"rendered":"Voting systems"},"content":{"rendered":"

In Canada, where I live, the vot\u00ading sys\u00adtem for the par\u00adlia\u00adments is the easy to under\u00adstand, but blunt, first past the post (FPTP<\/span>) sys\u00adtem (also called plur\u00adal\u00adity vot\u00ading). The per\u00adson who wins the most votes (a plur\u00adal\u00adity) wins the seat, wheth\u00ader they get over 50% or under 30%. I believe that it\u2019s time we had a sys\u00adtem that gives more people a more nuanced say in the gov\u00adern\u00adment they get; tac\u00adtic\u00adal vot\u00ading of vari\u00adous forms in a FPTP<\/span> sys\u00adtem only goes so far. For my own bene\u00adfit I\u2019ve writ\u00adten up the vot\u00ading sys\u00adtems of 3 oth\u00ader coun\u00adtries in which I\u2019ve lived. I don\u2019t have a firm opin\u00adion on which one I prefer (yet). <\/p>\n

Germany<\/h3>\n

At the Fed\u00ader\u00adal level in Ger\u00admany, the vot\u00ading sys\u00adtem is a ver\u00adsion of a mixed-mem\u00adber pro\u00adpor\u00adtion\u00adal sys\u00adtem: voters get two votes. One is for a dir\u00adect can\u00addid\u00adate (approx\u00adim\u00adately half the seats), and works by the plur\u00adal\u00adity (FPTP<\/span>) sys\u00adtem. The oth\u00ader is where the voter votes for a party. Each party has a list, and the appro\u00adpri\u00adate num\u00adber from each party list is deemed elec\u00adted, depend\u00ading on the num\u00adber of votes the party got. There is a threshold for the list votes; parties have to get over 5% of the vote to get any seats via the second (list) vote, unless more than three dir\u00adect can\u00addid\u00adates from that party are elected.<\/p>\n

This sys\u00adtem was set up to bal\u00adance many aims. Among them are the prin\u00adciple of equal votes (each vote must have equal weight), dis\u00adcour\u00adage small parties while allow\u00ading them, and encour\u00adage bal\u00adance between vari\u00adous polit\u00adic\u00adal views. It tends to lead to coali\u00adtion gov\u00adern\u00adments, and is good for find\u00ading consensus.<\/p>\n

Australia<\/h3>\n

Aus\u00adtralia uses pref\u00ader\u00aden\u00adtial, or ranked, vot\u00ading sys\u00adtems. The voter ranks the can\u00addid\u00adates in order of pref\u00ader\u00adence. If one can\u00addid\u00adate gets 50% + 1 (or more) first pref\u00ader\u00adence votes, they are elec\u00adted. If not, the can\u00addid\u00adate who received the few\u00adest first pref\u00ader\u00adence votes is elim\u00adin\u00adated from the list, and their second pref\u00ader\u00adences are dis\u00adtrib\u00aduted. This pro\u00adcess con\u00adtin\u00adues until one can\u00addid\u00adate does have 50% + 1 or more votes. There\u2019s a vari\u00adation for the Sen\u00adate that I\u2019m not going into.<\/p>\n

Ranked vot\u00ading gives people a chance to vote for a can\u00addid\u00adate they know won\u2019t win, and give the second pref\u00ader\u00adence to a main\u00adstream can\u00addid\u00adate, which makes it bet\u00adter than FPTP<\/span> tac\u00adtic\u00adal vot\u00ading. One down\u00adside is that you have to rank all can\u00addid\u00adates in order, and it is quite pos\u00adsible to miss a num\u00adber, or make some oth\u00ader mis\u00adtake. There are some people who num\u00adber from 1 down the page, so the bal\u00adlot has to be designed to take that \u2018don\u00adkey vote\u2019 into account.<\/p>\n

New Zealand<\/h3>\n

New Zea\u00adl\u00adand uses a dif\u00adfer\u00adent ver\u00adsion of mixed-mem\u00adber pro\u00adpor\u00adtion\u00adal rep\u00adres\u00adent\u00ada\u00adtion to Ger\u00admany. (No, I\u2019m not going into detail on the pre\u00adcise dif\u00adfer\u00adences.) Each voter has two votes: one for a dir\u00adect can\u00addid\u00adate, and one for a party. The party vote determ\u00adines the over\u00adall num\u00adber of seats each party is entitled to. There is a threshold, as for Ger\u00admany, of 5% for the party vote, or one dir\u00adect can\u00addid\u00adate elected.<\/p>\n

There are also a cer\u00adtain num\u00adber of seats reserved for the M\u0101ori elect\u00ador\u00adate; those use the same vot\u00ading system.<\/p>\n

Per\u00adson\u00adally, I think any of these sys\u00adtems would be bet\u00adter than the cur\u00adrent FPTP<\/span> sys\u00adtem we have.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Canada, where I live, the vot\u00ading sys\u00adtem for the par\u00adlia\u00adments is the easy to under\u00adstand, but blunt, first past the post (FPTP<\/span>) sys\u00adtem (also called plur\u00adal\u00adity vot\u00ading). The per\u00adson who wins the most votes (a plur\u00adal\u00adity) wins the seat, wheth\u00ader they get over 50% or under 30%. I believe that it\u2019s time we had \u2026 Con\u00adtin\u00adue read\u00ading \u201cVot\u00ading systems\u201d<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":3,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"","activitypub_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1482","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1482"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1486,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1482\/revisions\/1486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1482"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1482"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.laurenwood.org\/anyway\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1482"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}