Conservatives and Exhaustive Transferable Voting

Tory MPs are going through a laborious process to whittle five candidates for leadership down to two – who the membership will then vote on.

They are doing it by “exhaustive balloting”. Today we have a poll of five, after which the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated, before a poll of four on Thursday another elimination and then a poll of three next Tuesday.

This opens up scope for all sorts of machinations and sub-optimal results. Is there a quicker and possibly cleaner way?

Engaging voters in a PR election

The Eastminster blog (at UEA Norwich) published a post “The Big Sleep” (11 April 2014)

Mark Wells stood as a candidate in both a general election and European election. The European election was much less engaging for candidates and the electorate, he argues, because of the proportional electoral system.

His  experiences as a bottom of the list European candidate sounds dire but I take issue with his final conclusions that:

In reality, the PR system in use is too democratic to stir the blood.

Myth Busting: It’s too complicated

Often said of STV (The Single Transferable Vote).  The name is initially the hardest bit; but it says it all:

“I have a single vote and I can instruct the returning officer how to transfer it so as to best elect my choice of candidates.  I do this by putting a “1” against my first choice, a “2” against my second choice, a “3” against my third choice and so on until I am indifferent as to further preferences.”

For the voter it is as simple as that.

Myth Busting: The Israeli Example

Israel is often quoted as an example of the dangers of electoral reform.

In essence Israel is treated as a single constituency country and members are elected in strict proportion to the votes cast.  A consequence of this is that parties with very little support can get elected and have a possibly disproportionate impact on the government.  However, no one is suggesting this particular system for the UK – Proportional Representation is not a “single system”.