May 17th is getting closer and for British Columbians, this election day is also going to be a referendum day. We are going to be asked if we support the changes to our voting system proposed by the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. This has been quite a magnificent process but the last steps might been seen to have faltered a little. The Citizen's Assembly is proposing that BC change its voting system to one based on what is called the Single Transferable Vote system (STV).
STV is not an easy system to fully get your head around. And we need to educate ourselves as to its benefits and problems. The government has not done a great job with this in my view.
So here for your viewing pleasure and feedback is Arjun's one pager on BC STV:
Why are we being asked to vote on this proposed change to our voting system?
In 2004, the BC government set up a body called the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. The Assembly was made up of 160 BC citizens, broadly representative of the province's overall population, and its goal was to examine our current voting system and propose any changes they felt could improve the system. The Assembly decided to propose that the citizens of BC change our voting system to a system called the BC Single Transferable vote – or BC-STV for short.
What is BC – STV? How is it different from our current voting system?
With our current voting system, BC is divided into 79 electoral ridings which each elect one representative each to Victoria. When we vote, we make a mark (often an X) besides the name of one candidate.
With BC-STV, BC would be divided into a smaller number of electoral ridings which would each elect more than one representative to Victoria. There would be the same number representatives elected (79) and each riding would have between 2 and 7 representatives. The ridings would be geographically larger. When we vote, instead of voting for just one person, we would be given the opportunity to rank the candidates in order of preference. We can rank as many, or as few candidates, as we want.
The argument for BC-STV
the number of seats a political party wins in the legislature will more closely reflect the party's percentage of the popular vote.
voters will have more choice of candidates for which to vote.
local representation maintained or even enhanced. Now, there is more than one MLA representing you.
The argument against BC- STV
the increased size of the ridings will make it harder for MLAs to adequately represent everyone.
votes in rural ridings might be said to count less than votes in urban ridings. It might only take 15% of the vote to elect someone in Vancouver but it might take 30% of the vote to elect someone in Prince George.
with more parties and more interests represented in Victoria, it might be harder to get things done.
Update (April 7th 2005) - 3 Useful STV Web Sites
I appears to me that the STV system will be more a system that decides who I don't want in power than who I do. That's OK with me. Under the present political system my opinions of all parties are not taken into consideration. STV will allow me to voice my opinions on all candidates by my level of support for them. If I can't get my first choice into power, then I welcome the opportunity to influence who does get in.
Posted by: Bill Zeilstra | April 19, 2005 at 01:27 PM
The best way to understand STV is to try it: http://www.demochoice.org/dcballot.php?poll=BCSTV
I like it. It isn't perfect, but it's better than what we've got; a lot better.
Posted by: Cory Horner | April 23, 2005 at 06:04 PM