Of the following candidates who ran in the 2021 Edmotnon municipal election for a seat on council, which 12 candidates do you think were elected to Edmonton 12 aldermanic seats?
The answer might surprise you.
They are arranged in order of popularity, the number of votes they received and given numbers marking their position.
1 Tom Carmell 16,252 votes received
2 Andrew Knack 12,107 votes received
3 Sarah Hamilton 10,227 votes received
4 Michael Janz 8614 votes received
5 Ashley Salvador 8316 votes received
6 Aaron Paquette 8240 votes received
7 Karen Tang 7459 votes received
8 Karen Principe 6861 votes received
9 Tom Shaw 5682 votes received
10 Jo-Anne Wright 5860 votes received
11 Jennifer Rice 5831 votes received
12 Rhiannon Hoyle 5792 votes received
13 Joe Dziadyk 5391 votes received
14 Caroline Matthews 5357 votes received
15 Giselle General 5180 votes received
16 Erin Rutherford 4689 votes received
17 Harmon Singh Landola 4624 votes received
18 Bev Esslinger 4423 votes received
19 Derek Hlady 4380 votes received
20 Cori Longo 4367 votes received
21 Susan Field 4354 votes received
22 Kirsten Goa 4089 votes received
23 Moe Banga 4054 votes received
24 Anne Stevenson 4026 votes received
25 Guiscella Perez Arellano 3754 votes received
Here's the answer:
numbers 1 to 8, 10, 11, 16, 24 were elected.
Leaving aside the eight most-popular city wide,
if we divide the others into groups, it is not easy to see from their vote tallies which group contains those who were elected and which contains those who were not elected.
A 9, 14, 17, 20 elected or not elected?
B 13, 15, 19, 21 elected or not elected?
C 10, 11, 16, 24 elected or not elected?
D 12, 18, 22, 23 elected or not elected?
(Group C contains those who were elected. Added to the the eight most-popular across the city, we have the 2 city councillors elected in 2021.
We see that even though Tom Shaw got 2600 more votes than Anne Stevenson, he was not elected and she was.
How could this be if we say we live in a democracy?
They ran in different districts and were not in direct competition.
But fact still remains -- the most-popular candiates are not necessarily those who are elected.
But if Edmonton had elected its city councillors in a single district across the city, candidates would be in direct competition
and Edmonton elections would see the most-popular elected.
Due to our winner-take-all election system, only votes placed on the most-popular in the district are used; all others do not elect anyone.
Right now we have a city council that is was elected with less than half the votes cast in the last election.
And the mayor and most of the councillors were elected with just a minority of votes cast in their district.
is a city-wide district too large ?
Well, Edmonton mayor represents the whole city, so if he or she can, then surely 12 city councillors should be able to.
What about local representation?
Do you think many of the voters of Ipiihkoohkanipiaohtsi feel that Jennifer Rice represents them when only 32 percent - less than one third - actually voted for her?
And most of the other city councillor were also elected with less than half the vote in their districts.
Under our present system where Edmonton voters are divided into 12 separate wards and where perhaps as much as two third of votes cast elect no one, I don't think voters are getting any great representation, local or otherwise.
Our single-winner winner-take-all system has only been used since 2010.
Prior to 2010, Edmonton never used single-winner FPTP (except for mayor)
priot to 2010, Edmonton was divided into 6 wards, and before that into 4, and any election prior to 1971, Edmonton used city-wide districting.
In 1971 Edmonton had 273,000 eligible votes But due to each voter having three votes in the ward election, about 600,000 votes were cast.
In 2021 Edmonton had 600,000 eligible votes so if each voter has just one vote, the number of votes needed to be counted in an at-large district should be no more than were counted back in 1971 even if all the eligible voters vote, which is hardly likely to happen unless we see a great change.
In last city election in Edmonton, only just a bit more than a third of eligible voters voted.
voter turnout is not likely to increase dramatically unless our election system is made fair and voters actually see their votes used to elect someone -
Right now only about half the voters saw their vrte used to elect anyone.
And the only way to get fair voting is if each voter is given one vote and the district elects multiple members, even as many as 12.
That way no one group can take all the seats. Under our present election system it is lilkey that the Conservative voters or NDP voters, whichever has the most votes, will take all or almost all the seats, with the lesser group taking only a couple or none at all.
There is no guarantee that small groups will get their due share of seats and almost a guarantee that the largest group will take far more than its due share of seats.
With single voting and the use of one or more MMDs,multiple voting blocks will get representation.
if votes are made transferable where necessary, the system ensures that a large proportion of voters who vote have seen their vote used to actually elect someone.
With single voting, ranked votes and MMD/MMDs, each group will get its due share of seats,.
Perhaps the largest 12 groups in the city will each elect one.
That is much more fair than a system that denies a seat to a candidate with many votes while electing a different candidate who received fewer votes, which is what is happening now in Edmonton.
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