AV - How can it be fairer...

[R1Geezer]

When you can come anywhere but last and still win?

[R1Geezer]

because the candidate with the most votes wins.Does Usain Bolt have to win by 50 metres? 600 voted for someone else in your example. The system doesn't have a negative vote. Not voting for something doesn't mean you are voting against it.

[sandyRoe]

AV is fairer because it elects the candidate with the most support.

[R1Geezer]

no i doesn't sandy, see above, you can come almost last and still win.

[sandyRoe]

If a candidate wins they must have had the most support eventually.

[mike11111]

What wpould happen if enough people were to continue to vote for one candidate only so that in some constituencies no one can gain an overall majority? Who wins then?

[R1Geezer]

the votes are all cast at once, you don't go back and vote again, that would be impractical. under AV a winner will emerge eventually.

[venator]

Could this happen?

4 candidates -- Labour 45%, Tory 45%, BNP 6%., Monster raving loony 4%
Labour & Tory won't vote second preference for the other lot, so MLP goes out, and BNP scoop a majority from second preference.

[mike11111]

As in the majority of cases the Tories and Labour will occupy first and second place, their other preference votes are unlikely to be counted. As has has been mentioned before, both the Tories and UKIP could be the main beneficiaries. Under FPTP, UKIP has taken a small but significant number of votes from the Tories. Many Tory supporters, though sympathetic to UKIP, refrain to vote for them for fear of a wasted vote and handing the seat to the opposition. Assuming that the vast majority of UKIP voters would vote Tory otherwise, then it would be safe to vote UKIP first and Tory second, knowing that the vote wouldn't be wasted. This can only benefit the Tory Party. I wonder if Miliband and Clegg had this in mind:)

[rov1100]

If there was not enough tactical voting then AV will certainly increase it. Imagine a 3 horse race where before the winner takes the seat. But before the election takes place a deal could be done by 2 of the parties so that they voted 2nd preference for each other. The winner will nearly always end up losing.

[DTCwordfan]

and rove those are exactly the sort of deals done between the parties in Oz.

There is no perfect system - a combo of first past the post and an element of proportional would work best - or stay with the current.

AV can be too complicated, confusing (so the electorate percentage will drop significantly unless legally mandated and who wants that), and bloody expensive with all the time delays, recounts and general confusion.

Nope.

[mike11111]

The simplest solution, of course, would be to outlaw the Libs and all the other rag, tag and bobtail detritus clinging to the coat tails of our electoral system so that only Tory and Labour could put up candidates. 2 candidates, one must win a majority, simples!

[alexanderd]

Mike1111 thats the most sensible thing I have ever heard you say!!. The fringe parties (and I include the lib-dems in that) are never going to gain power on their own so lets get rid of them. Two parties, one vote, one winner.

[steg]

while we are at it, lets just have a dictatorship, that would end all the problems then,............. wouldn't it?

[askyourgran]

I've already voted No in my postal vote. Why should my vote go to some losers waiting at the bottom of the pile? One vote, one choice.

[IggyB]

http://www.youtube.co...QkX8Xa0&feature=share

this is a nice explanation of why AV is good

[IggyB]

sorry I put the link in the wrong place before.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtW3QkX8Xa0&feature=share

[mike11111]

Sorry, but this is the most patronising, juvenile apology of bovine manure that I have ever had to watch. It is an insult to the intellectual capacities of even the most amoeba-brained members of society. Had I ever been in the slightest doubt of which way to vote, this would have persuaded me to vote NO (which I have already done).

[R1Geezer]

Not a fair illustration , 3 selections were just going to a pub v the coffee shop people. So that's more like saying there are 3 Tories and a lib dem, of course the Tories would compromise on one candidate rather than have a libdem but what if the choices were coffee, beer, lemonade and Ostrich pi55? you could vote for a beer and end up with lemonade!