If B.C. voters had approved the Single Transferable Vote last time, how would the current election turn out? A new website offers a glimpse into an alternate universe.
Visitors to TrySTV.ca find an interactive map divided into giant ridings. By clicking on a map and following instructions, they can select up to six candidates, in order of preference.
Results are quick but confusing: visitors may be surprised to find their top choices vanish from the final selection, or their vote go to a third or fourth choice. The How it Works page isn't that helpful.
The display of candidates' names may bias voters: For some reason, NDP candidates appear at the top of the lists, with Liberals at the bottom.
The site offers running totals, so it's a kind of "hamburger poll." As of Thursday afternoon, with 228 "voters" casting their ballots, North Island-South Coast had elected two New Democrats, a Liberal, and a Green. (Full disclosure: The Hook voted twice.)
Meanwhile, Vancouver West with six MLAs to elect and 364 ballots cast, has so far "elected" one Green, three Liberals (Gordon Campbell, Margaret MacDiarmid, and Colin Hansen), and two New Democrats.
The Hook will keep track of TrySTV.ca, but takes note of the site's own warning: "Assume the ballot boxes are stuffed."
Crawford Kilian is a contributing editor of The Tyee.
If it is confusing now...
..wait to see if it gets passed and then try to vote.
I've been to one STV info. session and left confused.
If it is confusing for us who have been speaking English all our lives-try having have English as a second or third language.
At the STV session i went to the presenters were unaware if there has been any outreach to immigrant communities to explain the STV.
They thought there might be a brochure in "Chinese" for Richmond but didn't know when it would be printed.
I have to wonder how some immigrant communities are going to figure this out?
Especially those immigrants who are women, elderly and disabled as they have less access to English Language training programs than other immigrants.
That ol' saying "it's all Greek to me"-needs to be changed to "it's all English to me" when it comes to the STV.
The only way STV will pass...
...is if enough people vote just because it is the second time and they are tired of hearing about it and they think all the signs around indicate it is a better system. Nobody I have run into understands it and when I mention the multiple member riding aspect they are surprised. It is odd that a major change might be supported out of ignorance.
Visitors may be surprised to
Visitors may be surprised to find their top choices vanish from the final selection, or their vote go to a third or fourth choice.
But that is the point of STV. If your first choice gets eliminated then your vote goes to the next person on your list. I went through this with a friend. Her vote ended up going to her fourth choice. Her first choice got eliminated after her third choice had been elected and her second choice had been eliminated. While she was not happy that her first and second choices were eliminated she was happy that two of her choices were. In real life she would not have been able to vote for her first and fourth choices. And her first choice is unlikely to win. In real life she is left with the dilemma of voting for a losing candidate or strategically voting to prevent somebody else from winning.
I agree though that information needs to get out to all communities and groups. Unlike Skywalker who is afraid that people will pass this through ignorance, I am afraid it will be defeated through ignorance.
Skywalker
"It is odd that a major change might be supported out of ignorance."
You have lived in this province for how long? And you're surprised ignorance rules the day at election time???
Like notdarkyet I'm afraid it'll get defeated because its not well understood but to be fair, how many people even make an honest attempt at doing that?
Look at the rhetoric surrounding the idea of the Coalition federally, people just don't understand their system well.
First choice "eliminated".
I also think it is incorrect to say "If your first choice gets eliminated then your vote goes to the next person on your list" because your first choice might make the quota (not eliminated) without your vote and then you essentially get a second try with your vote because it was not needed to put your first choice over the top..
Media "confused"
I find it astonishing - well, not so much; certainly not surprising anyway - that media types and Dippers linked to the inner circle find themselves confused by BC-STV or fear, as one columnist put it, it would wreck "mind bending confusion" upon the way we do politics in this province. In the meantime, down at the grassroots, where boots hit the ground and citizens are becoming hopeful...
STV the only alternative on the ballot
I think the NDP fears the STV because they are going to loose their monopoly on opposition when it passes. I am voting YES STV and NDP for now. BUT the moment the STV passes, my vote for the NDP is up for play. Will I go Green? I remain undecided but both the libs and NDP piss me off. The STV is NOT confusing in any meaningful way. It might reinvigorate politics and voter apathy may decrease. BEST of all we can leave behind the horrible two party system we have in this province.
What worries me if STV comes
What worries me if STV comes to pass is we will never ever see another NDP majority government in this province.
The 3 times the NDP won they never received even 40% of the popular vote but the two parties on the right split the votes allowing the NDP to sneak a victory.
With STV and if the BC Con party gets more support and splits the vote with the Liberals, the NDP would still just get a minority and that is providing the two right wing parties do not form a coalition and even if they did not the NDP could not really do much but if the libs got a minority and the Cons got some seats the cons would probably keep the Libs in power for a while.
I would like to see MMP like New Zealand not STV, yes the results for the NDP would still be the same, a minority at best...
I dunno, the NDP seems to support STV for some reason but really I do not believe it will benefit them unless there was another left party. The Greens have centrist ideas but a lot of their platform is based on conservative principals too....
I am not voting on May 12, I am going to write in 'none of the above' under the candidates names and then put in an "X" and as well I will vote No for STV.
About TrySTV.ca
As one of the creators of TrySTV, I'd like to explain briefly who we are, our intentions and the site limitations.
TrySTV is a joint project between Antony Hodgson (myself) and Dave Robinson of Demochoice USA. I'm a mechanical engineering professor at UBC and was appalled at the low level of public awareness of the referendum in 2005, so I teamed up with Dave to customize their online STV polls to help British Columbians understand what BC-STV would look like here. Our website was judged to be neutral by Elections BC. I subsequently joined the board of directors of Fair Voting BC and am therefore now working with the official proponent group. TrySTV will continue to be a neutral site. Dave is handling all the detailed programming. Both of us are volunteers.
Our primary purpose is to give BC voters a chance to understand how BC-STV votes are counted in a realistic scenario. I am non-partisan - that is, I am not affiliated with any BC or federal political party - so there is no partisan bias in the polls.
The way parties are listed on the ballots and on the summary page (ie, with certain parties listed above others) is due to a programming limitation. Ideally, we'd like to follow the official guidelines for ballots - ie, grouping by party and random rotation of candidates - and to post winners in the order in which they're elected, but that requires more programming effort than the time Dave has available. We've therefore done the expedient thing and made a random and fixed choice about how to order the parties. I give you my personal assurance that there is no bias implied here.
If anyone has any questions about this website, please send me an email: .