Tuesday, 3 May 2011

One Man One Vote - Why Change That?

One man one vote - why change that simple, democratic principle for a more complex system?

Both AV and FPTP give the voters a one man one vote system. However, the AV system allows a vote to be transferred. It's still one vote, no matter how many times it gets transferred.

The question is then, is it fair to allow a vote to be transferred?

The only situation where transfers arise are when the vote leader has less than 50% support. In this case votes of the knocked-out losers are transferred to their other preferences, with the end result that the winner has 50% or more of the votes. If a less popular candidate loses the initial lead because of this process, that has to be fair, because the majority's diverse wishes will be carried instead of the single-minded wishes of a minority.

The only situation where transfers arise are when the vote leader has less than 50% support but this happens in two-thirds of seats at the moment so it will have a big impact on future elections.

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