[milton-chat] Fw: Please remember to vote on Thursday 3rd May

[Paul Oldham]

On 27/04/07 15:11 Debbie Perkins wrote:

> I can understand where David is coming from, unless Tim can explain what he 
> meant by his quote on the 25 th April!

He's urging habitual Labour party voters to vote tactically for Hazel 
Smith (the Lib Dem) as if they vote for the Labour candidate (Valerie 
Ross) they're likely to end up seeing the Tory candidate (Gerda Covell) 
win. (He wasn't quite so explicit but the poster board in his front 
garden reveals all ;-)).

Looking at recent election results I can't fault his analysis.

What David is suggesting, simply remembering to vote and hoping that the 
"best" (or at least the most favoured) candidate will win would work 
fine if we have a proportional voting system like STV but we don't. It's 
still "first past the post" hence the need to vote tactically or the 
candidate most people would prefer may well not win.

If this is all new to you then the Electoral Reform Society have loads 
of useful material at http://www.electoral-reform.org.uk/ and you can 
try out STV yourself via http://www.votevote.org/ - a site which I 
created for Make Votes Count a couple of years ago.

-- 
Paul