On May 5th 2011, the United Kingdom will go to the polls to vote on the referendum for an alternative vote. If it passes, it will change the way we vote in the UK forever.
As you know the UK has a coalition government running the country at the moment, due to no party winning a clear number of votes. To save us all going back to the polls, or Labour taking over again, the Conservatives (who won most votes, but not a majority to take parliament) formed a joint government with the Liberal Democrats and together they run the country. Part of the deal to get the Lib-Dems to join the Conservatives, was for the Lib-Dems referendum (if they won government) to go through.
Their referendum is for an Alternative Vote system. Which, in their eyes would prevent a joint government from occuring again.
I'll explain this as best as i can now.
Present Voting System
At the moment, we go to the polls and pick 1 candidate by marking the box next to their name with an X. It gets put into a ballot box, and gets counted. The candidate with the most votes wins.
Alternative Voting System
The "proposed" system, which will take over the present one if voted "Yes" on will change the way we vote forever.
Basically, we would go to the polls as usual. But instead of voting with an X to just 1 candidate, we vote with numbers.
With me so far, ok....
It works like a ranking system instead, we would place a "1" next to the candidate who you would like to win. But now, we have a choice to make. We can either leave the "1" in the box and post as usual, or we can mark numbers down next to other candidates aka "2", "3" etc. In the case that we can't decide on just 1 candidate, we could vote for anything upto 4 candidates or more on the same ballot sheet(s).
When it comes to counting votes, they are all counted up to get an overall number. Then, they are counted by numbers. Aka, the candidate with the number 1 would go into 1 pile, the candidate with the number 2 would go into another pile. If the candidate who has the number 1 written next to their name gets more than 50% of the vote, they win that vote.
Still with me, right gets more interesting now.
If after all the votes are counted, and the candidate with the number 1 doesn't have 50% of the votes, then the candidate with the lowest votes would be elimintated. Their votes would be distributed amongst the remaining candidates. Aka, if the candidate with number 1 is voted on a sheet of the candidate who was eliminated, then if the candidate who is number 1 is rated on that sheet as number 2, they would win that vote.
Other candidates would have the votes, if they were voted number 2 on the eliminated candidates sheet.
If no-one has reached 50% yet, the process begins again, this time candidate with number 1 would get votes marked as number "3", same goes for the other candidates. And it will continue until one candidate has 50% of the vote.
So in the end, a candidate could win even if they don't have 50% of the votes to themselves, because eliminated candidates votes could go to them, even if they were not the initial choice for that voter. You would in-fact vote for a candidate to win, and not particulary want them to win.
Bit of a complicated system, which makes even more work for the vote counters.
I've read both the "Yes" and "No" campaigns, which are found on the corresponding word.
In my eyes, there is nothing wrong with the current system. It is simple, which is what is needed with the voters. By making things more complicated, it will deter voters in my opinion.
Plus, as i mentioned above. It would prevent a joint government. I believe it won't, because a candidate would get clear votes to win. But, the party would need a majority of candidates to win voters in order to win government still. This part doesn't change.
What do you peeps think about this?.