Yes To Fairer Votes photo in Cambridge

[chess]

The AV Yes Campaign are doing a photo shoot on Saturday. I can't get to it because I'm at a player event, so I thought I would post about it. Event details and signup at http://tinyurl.com/purplephoto

I suspect if I actually made any commentary on AV I would mostly be preaching to the converted here, but I'm always happy to host a political argument on this or basically any subject if you like :).

The very short version is: I want the AV Yes Campaign to win because it would mean that I never, ever have to deliver any propaganda with the phrase 'two-horse race' or a stupid bar graph showing how Foo Can't Win Here ever again...

Comments

[1st-law.livejournal.com]

Unfortunately tactical voting exists in PR. It's the same as in the local election but at the national scale.

E.g. If you want to keep the Tories from forming a government you're still better off voting for Labour than the Green party in PR. Admittedly, however, it is less bad. The vote for Green does dilute the Tory vote a little rather than being wasted.

Arguably the same applies in AV but in AV you effectively always end up casting a vote either for the winner or the first placed loser in your area (if you keep redistributing past the point where the winner has been decided) so it's much better just to honestly list your preferences. Just put the BNP at the bottom of your list and you will always vote for whoever isn't them.

One reason I don't like PR is that you don't have a single person who you elect you instead contribute to a list. It means there isn't an individual who is responsible to a set of voters and it formalises party politics when in theory FPTP and AV both allow independents to be significant.

My personal wish would be to make the House of Lords PR but it doesn't seem like PR in any form is going to be offered as a choice any time soon.