UK AV Referendum Poll

[Franzl]

Strongly support.

My prefered voting system.

[Franzl]

It's hard for me to understand why people actually want PR with any type of party list.
STV would be quite good though.

[Franzl]

I know this is exactly what I'm expected to say, but...

Hurry up and copy Australia's parliamentary and electoral systems, Britain. You'll like it, I promise.

Apart from the mandatory voting nonsense, I agree it would be quite a good idea.

[Franzl]

Proportionality is very strongly overrated.

[Franzl]

Anything that has to do with party lists is bad.....FPTP, AV or STV are all acceptable to me.

[Franzl]

Anything that has to do with party lists is bad.....FPTP, AV or STV are all acceptable to me.

Why is that? I quite like Party Lists in that they allow for less charismatic candidates with specific competences to get into parliamentt, without the party having to parachute them into a safe seat.

The parties and government know best, obviously.

[Franzl]

Anything that has to do with party lists is bad.....FPTP, AV or STV are all acceptable to me.

Are you naive enough to believe that parties have any less influence in the choice of candidates in uninominal systems ? Come on, you know that except in a few countries parties always choose the candidates whatever the voting system is.

Choice of candidates, yes.....but the voters are still able to reject an individual candidate without rejecting the entire party's choices.

I know I don't vote against a party list because of a couple of people on it I might not like. I don't like the fact that I have to cast a ballot for an entire list.

[Franzl]

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I don't necessarily oppose proportionality. As previously stated, I could very easily support PR-STV.

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Very strongly disagree. I value personal, individual representation as the most important thing, and I view parties mainly as a necessary (very necessary, mind you) evil. It's not just about personality, it's about who you believe is the most competent and best suited to represent your district/state.

I don't think ideology trumps everything else.

[Franzl]

What a shame.

[Franzl]

Don't know what's been happening in this case very well, but I think if people are uninformed and uninterested, they tend to vote against change in practically all referenda.

[Franzl]

So another of the No campaign's arguments is that AV could lead to more votes for the BNP.  I guess democracy truly must be terrible in their eyes.  (Unless it's just fear-mongering propaganda, of course...)

What's ironic (beside the fact that you're entirely right) is that the BNP is far less likely to actually win a seat under AV than under FPTP.

[Franzl]

AV is neither more or less proportional than FPP. It, however, avoids vote splitting, which is the second most hideous flaws of FPP (the first being absence of clear links between vote count and seat results, and which indeed only PR can solve).

You're assuming that votes are always for a particular political party, but in reality voting for a particular candidate can have several reasons completely independent of party.

[Franzl]

Agree with Xahar. I don't see the purpose of giving individual MPs their own mandate in parliament if it's all about the party and nothing else. What if I don't trust any party enough to cast a vote for them? Why should the voting system serve to limit my options?

STV, however, is an exception. I can accept that because it allows me to choose between individual candidates.

Any list based systems, though, as Antonio seems to favor.....are absolutely awful IMO.

[Franzl]

Apparently, some places aren't giving out referendum ballots, you have to ask for one. That's pretty awful...

where?