AV - How can it be fairer...

[R1Geezer]

When you can come anywhere but last and still win?

[JimT]

sandyRoe, there'd be plenty of people saying "Yes, and good thing too" to your last comment. Not me, but I agree with you.

[Old_Geezer]

That concern, as I see it, is of a similar nature to those in the past who worried about giving the great unwashed the vote at all: or even wasting money educating them. The horrors it might bring. Yes I'd suspect there would be a number of things passed that future generations would look back on and shudder about, but that is democracy, the will of the majority. And a people do not mature until they are given the reigns to make their mistakes and learn from them. Eventually we'd learn not to always go for the short term easy option, that a nation needs to be realistic, and also to include minorities and not always override them for what the majority would like every time.

[scotman]

Interesting thread this but I am leaving it now. Just one last piece of advice.

On 5th May - vote early and vote often.

[mike11111]

One unanswered question is this? If the YES vote should prevail, are the government obliged to change the system, especially if the majority is a small one based on a minority of the total electorate? My understanding is that referenda in this country are not binding. Failure to do so would break up the coalition, of course, but hey ho...

[kayakamina]

Didn't I read that there must be a 40% turn out for it to be valid?

[mike11111]

That was proposed but rejected by parliament.

[kayakamina]

I see - thanks.

[New Judge]

“If you just put a 1 and nothing more, you'd be denying yourself an opportunity to influence the outcome if your chosen candidate was eliminated”.

Quite so, Sandy. You should not have a second crack of the whip if your chosen candidate comes last. You’ve had your opportunity to influence the vote and backed a loser.

Of course if the organisers wanted to give voters a chance to experience AV in action the ballot should have three options – “Yes”, “No”, and “Maybe” – which the voters should place in order of preference. If “Maybe” comes last and neither “Yes” nor “No” achieves 50%, then the second choices of the “Maybes” will swing the vote. Sounds fair enough to me to me.