I signed up with Pair Vote to see what would happen.   The whole premise is not well thought outand takes a huge amount of effort for no measurable impact.   They would be much better off actively campaigning for someone.

What I find interesting is that they are dealing with tens of votes in any given riding.  Scroll to the bottom of the page, 320 people, a reasonable portion of all the people in Pair Vote, are outside of Quebec but are offering to vote for the Bloc.  Either these people registering are stupid or not taking the whole idea seriously.  It also says to me once again that the people behind the very concept do not have the faintest idea of dynamics of elections or what it takes to win a seat.

 Here is the text of the email I just got from them:

Sorry - we could not match you this time around.


Hello,


We have just completed our first pairing round. Visit blog at http://www.pairvote.ca for the results. We have reviewed all of our registered paired voters, and unfortunately we were not able to find a match for you yet -- but we’re going to be performing a second round of matches after midnight on April 30, and would like to try again for you.


To increase your chances of getting matched with another voter in the second round, you can now specify more than one preferred party. We will attempt to match any of your choices with another voter.


Most of the close races involve a Liberal and a Conservative, so we need many more Liberal swappers to increase impact.


So, for example if your preferred party is Green, now you can add parties like Liberal and NDP, in order of preference. It means that someone may vote Liberal or NDP for you instead of Green. Sadly, we have very limited swaps available for Green supporters, because only Elizabeth May’s riding is an option. Unless thousands of Saanich-Gulf Island NDP/Liberal supporters sign up this week, preventing a false Conservative majority is the next best option for swapping.


Go here to update your voting preferences


How you can make a difference in the final week?
We’ve got 3 really important actions:


Review this email carefully - especially your pairing details.
IMPORTANT: Contact your vote swap partner as soon as possible. Discuss and confirm your voting plans. Vote swapping is based on trust, so the more time you have to connect and get to know one another, the better you’ll feel about your swap.
Once you have contacted your partner, decide if you like our match or not. If not, reply to this email as soon as possible so that we have time to find a new match for you and your partner.
Be a local contact for media requests. Reporters want to speak with vote swappers in their area. Email us if you are willing to do so. Also, write your local media sharing why you are vote swapping.
Donate for local polling. We’ve teamed up with Project Democracy this election. They need $$ to do polling in a few critical swing ridings where the contests are currently too close to call -- this will ensure that we pick the right candidate in those ridings to prevent a false Conservative majority. They’ve asked us the pair vote community to raise $5000. We can do that if:
10 people give $100
20 people give $50
50 people give $20
200 people give $10
Donate securely at http://www.votepair.ca
Share your pair voting experience here.


Other ways to get involved...
If you do not want to wait for our second round of matching, the other option you have is to try and find a match on your own using this interactive vote swapping application on FaceBook. The application will give you a full list of voters who would be willing to vote for your preferred party, and you can contact any of them to see if they’d like to set up a swap.


If you find a match, you must unsubscribe from Pair Vote


Thank you so much for getting involved and showing your support for electoral reform.


Yours for a strong democracy,
Pair Vote Team 2011
www.pairvote.ca
email@votepair.ca


Our mailing address is:
Pair Vote
44 Cambridge Pl
Sault Ste. Marie, ON P6A 6E9


Copyright (C) 2011 Pair Vote All rights reserved.