BC-STV – Question 2: Could the BC-STV have the opposite effect to what is desired?
Will this just concentrate the votes and result in more disproportional representation and have exactly the opposite of the desired effect?
Is it reasonable to assume that people will actually rank all of the candidates,or knowing that 3 MLA’s will be elected, will they just rank the four from the party that they would like to see in power.
I have a tough time believing that even a mildly enthusiastic NDP supporter would put a Liberal in any position among the top 3, or vice versa. (See the next question to look at the possibility of using this to game the system)
So here’s the question: Does this lead to a danger of having one area in the region that votes heavily for one party overwhelming the other regions?
Here’s a model of what I’m concerned about. Because of the simplicity of this model, I’m nearly certain that the results would be different in real life. That’s the point of this post, I’m looking for the truth, so feel free to comment and enlighten me.
I’ve assumed here that if people just vote among party lines and rank only the top 3 candidates. Take a look at Try BC-STV and you’ll see how this could happen fairly easily, particularly if people aren’t completely sure how the new voting system works.
What if this happens
| Party | Current Riding 1 | Current Riding 2 | Current Riding 3 | BC-STV Results |
| NDP | 70 | 28 | 28 | 126 |
| Liberal | 20 | 52 | 52 | 124 |
| Green | 10 | 20 | 15 | 45 |
| Result | NDP | Liberal | Liberal | 3 NDP Seats |
Post your responses to these questions, pose other questions or concerns and let’s have a conversation about this. The shape of our democracy deserves our attention.
For more questions and discussion on this topic: Click Here
Your example above is comparing FPTP to FPTP. Winner takes all in all your examples. Under STV your vote would transfer. With the final results that you have in the 4th column there would be preferences expressed on each ballot. Since we cannot see the rankings in your example it’s hard to predict the outcome. However, the way STV is designed is that the seats would reflect the votes. So if the votes are half and half for the two parties half the seats would be for one party and half for the other.
In your other question you suggest that voting within the party is a bad thing, that this would somehow be cheating. However this is exactly what you should do if your are a strong party supporter. Don’t put your votes against a party you don’t support. You don’t do that under FPTP, why would you do that under STV. Rank as many or as few candidates as you want.
The point about STV is that everyone has more choice. Voters with less party allegiance can vote across party lines. They might choose two candidates from their favorite party and give a third preference to the really hard working candidate from their second choice party.
In your example for Question 2 the Quota for this three member riding is 74. After one Liberal and one NDP candidate have been elected (as both parties have more than the quota) you have NDP – 52 votes remaining, Liberal – 50 votes remaining and Green 45 votes remaining. This assumes that each voter votes for all the candidates from one party. In this case the last Green party candidate is eliminated and if these votes do not have a non-green preference they are wasted. Then the last NDP candidate is declared elected because this candidate will have more votes than the last Liberal candidate.
Hope this helps
David Wills
Member of the Citizens’ Assembly