Av

[Nemo]

Sounds good to me, if they can't cope with numbering things 1-4 I won't be losing sleep over their disenfranchisement.

[jimmy_onions]

I cant decide, is the AV vote subject to AV? In which case I may put
1) FPTP
2) AV

appease my confusion a little..

[Bathtime]

People have trouble putting one X in a box - asking them to put numbers in the order of preference is going to totally fuck up the ballot papers of 80% of the country

And the fact the cat beat the dog because some retards thought they would be a nice second choice has confirmed that it's a NO from me.

Life would be a lot simpler if it was just the Conservatives and Labour party, none of this wishy washy shite you get now a days, Red or Blue end of, none of this "I want to be different" crap and pretend that you can mix and match politics...

I am with you on this one totally. Well said.....

[LucienSanchez]

Funnily enough I'm being pushed in the opposite direction by the blatant lies and scaremongering of the No camp who all seem to assume I'm an idiot. Actually, they may have a point

I've tried to avoid all the official campaigns, and the only propaganda i've seen relating to the no vote is from the Yes Campaign bleating on about how it's wrong. They're doing a much better job of getting all up in people's grills - to start with, i didn't even know there was a No campaign! My main problem, is that I know a lot of lefties and students, who keep clogging up my News Feed with whinging and droning on about voting Yes. I much prefer hearing about people's dinner plans and everyday irritations, and frankly this is getting in the way...

[Simon Pieman]

It will just make politics more middle ground and parties similar. I can't be bothered to vote

[ghanimah]

Life would be a lot simpler if it was just the Conservatives and Labour party, none of this wishy washy shite you get now a days, Red or Blue end of, none of this "I want to be different" crap and pretend that you can mix and match politics...

What you mean 'how dare anyone have a different opinion' to the Tories or Labour - what if you hate them both? Am I supposed to be disenfranchised then?

[iffy]

People have trouble putting one X in a box - asking them to put numbers in the order of preference is going to totally fuck up the ballot papers of 80% of the country

Just googled - 0.38% of votes were spoiled in 2001 (many of these deliberately). So people don't have trouble putting an x in a box.

The idea that "putting a list of three things in order" is complicated is just not true.

And if you're after simple, then a system where 35% of the votes can deliver 60% of the seats in a parliament that then governs with a working majority of 50-100 of 650-odd MPs isn't all that straightforward either.

[@MacPhlea]

What you mean 'how dare anyone have a different opinion' to the Tories or Labour - what if you hate them both? Am I supposed to be disenfranchised then?

Yes - you have to be in one camp or the other... none of this mamby pamby stuff, it's people like with an opinion that have ruined this word... if you don't like it emigrate to somewhere that likes ideaology...

[@MacPhlea]

Just googled - 0.38% of votes were spoiled in 2001 (many of these deliberately). So people don't have trouble putting an x in a box.

The idea that "putting a list of three things in order" is complicated is just not true.

Well just writing is difficult for some people, X's are easy - I bet of you asked people to put a more complicated letter like 'G' more would get it wrong because they are so used to putting an X.

Imagine how much more complicated school lessons on politics is going to be now - the voting bit used to take 5 seconds - the kids will never get it as it means mixing words with numbers

[iffy]

Well just writing is difficult for some people, X's are easy - I bet of you asked people to put a more complicated letter like 'G' more would get it wrong because they are so used to putting an X

I think they are proposing 'happy face', 'sad face' and 'straight-mouth neutral face'

[Phil_S]

It's gonna be a NO for me.
If you have 5 candidates named a,b,c,d & e.
A gets 35%, B gets 30%, C gets 17%, D 10% & E gets 8%.
In the second round E is eliminated , but that 8% of votes gets counted again using their second choice. For simplicity if they all put candidate D as second choice then candidate C would be eliminated as the next round would be A 35%, B 30%, C 17% D 10% + 8% = 18%.
In the third round it could be that C's second choices get added to Candidates D's 1st choices & E's second choices to eliminate candidate B. & win.
All very complicated, messy & unfair. No wonder the lib dems back it!

Why should someone who votes for say the BNP, get their alternative choices taken into account to the extent that my first choice is "outvoted"

[Samdy Gray]

At the moment, a government can stay in power for ten years at a throw (Thatcher/Major, Blair/Brown) on about 30-40% of the votes. If that feels wrong, then there's a case for reform.

You're still going to get that, it just that the other 10-20% needed to take them over 50% will be made up of second or third choice votes.

Personally I can't see the point in saying I like party X, but if they don't win then I'd prefer it to be party Y. That's a bit like saying if I can't have my favourite cake, I'll have that one with dog shit smeared all over it instead.

No thanks.

[pauld]

Personally I can't see the point in saying I like party X, but if they don't win then I'd prefer it to be party Y. That's a bit like saying if I can't have my favourite cake, I'll have that one with dog shit smeared all over it instead.

No it's not. It's like saying (to use Stan Pajak's analogy from the Adver today) "It’s like if you go to the pub and say I’ll have a pint of Archers. If they haven’t got that, you ask for a pint of Arkells. You haven’t bought two drinks. You’ve bought one; but you’ve shown a preference"

If the alternatives do strike as being about as appealing as dog shit, you don't have to express a second/third/whatever preference.

[Samdy Gray]

Well, quite, but I was aiming for dramatic effect

[pauld]

Well, quite, but I was aiming for dramatic effect

And now that I think about it, the choices will be a lot more like choosing between different lumps of shit than pieces of cake so I think the analogy probably works better than I first thought.