Thursday, April 9, 2009

STV

Every aspect of the campaign for Yes to BC STV points to it coming from average people interested in something fairer and more representative.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can some one point me to a short and rigorous description of STV, anywhere?

Isn't one of its problem that even the promoters can't describe it effectively?

Anonymous said...

The STV website has a fairly good 4minute video

http://stv.ca/node/296

My understanding of STV is:

It is simply a system in which voters rank candicates by preference in their multi-member riding in numerical order, as many as they want to list. Second and subsequent preferences are counted after first votes are counted. Second preferences are distributed when either the lowest candidate is dropped or a candidate is elected with more than the minimum threshold needed. The process continues until the specified number of candidates in that riding have met the minimum threshold.

Beneficial results are:
- close to proportionality
- voters have options and can select according to party or individual candidate preference or a combination of both
- forces parties and candidates to find some common ground cf the 'winner take all' approach of the current First Past the Post.