Quote:
Originally Posted by Bunk
It would be interesting to see what would happen if we had automatic run-offs until someone got at least 50% of the vote.
Bottom first place vote getter drops off and those second choices get added.
In this case bottom three would not have mattered that much to the total, but if Turner was then next to drop off, how would those voter's second preference gone? I suspect Locke would have won under that format.
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I really don't like the automated run off system. Essentially you would forever elect liberal governments or even worse governments who don't stand for anything. Taking a stand on an issue will always alienate people so in a 3 way race if one person is say Pro Pipeline and one person is Anti Pipeline and the third was non-commital everyones second vote goes to the middle person and they always win. This has become a problem in provincial politics as the last two premiers have been people who don't want to make any decisions. In a run off system taking a stand results in losing.
Part of the problem is it doesn't allow voter apathy to take place. The main arguement behind the vote split assumes that a large portion of the votes for the green or liberal person would have gone to eachother. I wonder if that is actually true or if that group wouldn't just stay home. In this case being as tight as it was it would change the results but on a macro scale you can't just say conservatives only have support of under 40% of the nation just because that is how many votes are cast.