Protest vote dilemma

[Cav]

Tony

Not sure I understand how that relates to the prospect of electoral reform.

It is always the minority parties, who have no real power in Government and no reasonable expectation of it, who understandably clamour for reform. Of course, since they have no power, those who are in power take no notice and why would they?

 

[Tony L]

Not sure I understand how that relates to the prospect of electoral reform.

My reasoning is that the inherent unfairness of UKIP getting a heck of a lot of votes and translating them into next to no seats will put the subject on the table in a way it has not been before, i.e. to what has been referred to as the 'white van man' demographic etc. Previously the subject has been in the domain of LibDems, Greens etc, who tend to be of a certain middle-class background and are usually politically literate (university educated etc) so understand the concepts - it is a rather stuffy academic subject after all. I very much hope it spreads to a far wider audience as I genuinely believe this country would be far better served by a proper democracy, and I include UKIP etc in that - if folk vote for them those votes should be translated fairly into representation.

 

[Arkless Electronics]

What do fishies reckon to Oz style compulsory voting?

I suppose that it would at least give more of a true mandate to whoever won...

PR first needs turkeys to vote for xmas unfortunately.

 

[Tony L]

What do fishies reckon to Oz style compulsory voting?

Only if there is a 'none of the above' option. No one should be forced to vote for something they do not believe in.

 

[avole]

You'll find that voting is never 100% in Australia even if the turnout is 100%. You don't need a none of the above option either.

 

[Cesare]

None of the above is a great concept when combined with non-compulsory voting.

It sends the message 'I could be bothered to turn up to vote, so am politically active, but i'm not represented by any of this lot' - it's a straight measure of the missed votes that some party could in theory be collecting.

The closest we have at the moment is a spoilt ballot paper, and as has been pointed out, a very large spoilt paper count would send the same sort of message, so long as it can't be discounted as a one off protest (not sure how to achieve that).

 

[Cuyahoga]

Snag is that deliberately spoilt ballot papers (eg writing "none of the above" or similar on them) are counted along with unintentionally spoilt papers, so at present it isn't possible to separate protest from numpties.

 

[Joe Hutch]

You live in a wealthy area, drive a big car, and imply that you send your children to a fee paying school. Looks like you are doing OK out of the current system. What's your objection to voting for the dog turd?

I'm guessing 'tuition fees' refers to university fees rather than school fees.

 

[Joe Hutch]

What do fishies reckon to Oz style compulsory voting?

Only if combined with legally binding election manifestos, with long prison sentences if manifesto pledges are not met.