Four drinks win out in STV demo election
Edmonton May 13, 2023
The first STV demo election in a hundred years was held in Edmonton today. (This is the first STV demo election held in public in a hundred years, that the writer knows of anyway.)
Graham Lettner, running in Edmonton-Goldbar as an Independent, hosted the event, held at St. Paul's Church (9155 79 Avenue).
His campaign pushes for use of PR in provincial elections, and he put the proposal to the test by holding a demonstration election. Ten types of drinks were voted on by participants using preferential ballots.
An assortment of cold drinks, hot drinks, fruit juices and other were up for "election".
With four being elected, and each voter having just one vote (a first preference with back-up preferences), an assortment that satisfied most voters was "elected."
Ginger ale, coffee and coca-cola were the most popular choices. Mango juice was the choice of just a few but its supporters were enough to make quota so it was elected as well, proving the ability of STV to produce "minority representation."
Orange juice and tea did not get enough votes to be elected under STV, but might have won under First Past The Post if the districts had been gerrymandered.
Lettner, in his presentation, stated that his campaign was emphasizing STV because it was a simple but flexible system of PR and in its 30 years of use in Alberta elections, when it was used to elect MLAs in Edmonton and Calgary 1920s to 1950s, had proven that it would work within the Canadian political culture.
The votes cast were initially divided into four districts. The winners of these four districts under First Past the Post were seen to be less diverse than the winners under STV, when the same votes were grouped into a simulated multi-member district electing four.
Participants were given two ballots, each to be filled out the same, one to go on the ballot box and a copy retained by the voter. When the STV results were announced, Lettner asked the participants how many had one or more of their choices elected. Referring to their ballot copies, all answered in the affirmative. That is the kind of effective voting that does not happen under First Past the Post.
Lettner says he looks forward to May 27th when STV will be demonstrated again.
(Written by Tom Monto)
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The NDP is pushing for MMP, which can include multi-member districts,
as is done in Denmark, and can include STV (combo of multi-member districts and ranked voting), as in a version of MMP called Rural-Urban PR which is among the proposal put forward by Fair Vote Canada.
I hope that NDP and all other parties begin to hold demo elections to demonstrate fairness of PR, no matter what system is proposed.
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