Boards
AV vs PR well AV seems a bit s*** to me, PR is far preferable, cheaper, simpler and easy to implement.
AV is not PR
AV compromises on local representation in that the person most voted for locally might not get elected......it still means that some peoples votes dont count.
AV is not simple and therefore is not transparent
AV will require new ways of totting up
PR is remarkably simple.
With PR, the Voting and totting up system can stay exactly the same.
I have done a spreadsheet using the last election results.
The Only change that needs to occur with PR I will discuss in a post to follow.
Creakyknees PR reflects also the dual element of parliamentary representation, i.e. Local issues and interests being represented.....and.....demographic interests being more proportionally represented by some additional mps.
The candidate that gets the most votes in a constituancy gets a seat and gets to represent the locality AND their party has their vote in parliamentary voting.
The people who did not pick the winning candidate have not wasted their votes because there will be 256 extra (non local) mps (or votes for the parties in parliamentary voting) These will be allocated as per the proportion of votes that was cast for each party. (I have picked 256, but this is just because it gives me the closest approxiamation of fair reflection of nationwide votes with regard to the number of mps........I have done it till mostly there are no parties that are down by more than 0.5 of a seat (as per the proportions)
My next post will show the advantages......but please do not be alarmed by the actual results.....because people WILL vote differently when they know their vote wont be lost.......traditionally its the lib dems that vote even though they know they cant win in a constituancy....whereas lab and con are more likely not to turn up to vote.....so with PR you might find that more of the Lab and Con voters will turn out, which will moderate the advantage that the libdems would be expected to get.
(although there are many factors involved (and it might be that some lib dem inclined voters probably vote lab or con cos they are so frightened of the other.