Quote:
Originally Posted by FireFly
...although I believe part of the problem was educating the voters on what the changes would mean.
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IIRC, the majority of voters in BC supported electoral reform, but that majority fell slightly short of the 60% super-majority that the government deemed acceptable to actually implement the changes.
In reality, I think voter education is one of the big ways in which democracy in general is broken. We have so-called representative democracy, but the representatives do very little other than follow the tides of public opinion polls. How much thought do you think people put into answering an opinion poll? I don't imagine it's very much (although I have to think carefully to ensure that I'm lying to the pollster). Suddenly, in an age where you can hardly go a day without hearing a poll result, I think voters have started to turn off their brains on election day, simply considering the election to be another opinion poll.
Opinion polls are the equivalent of asking "which girl do you think is the hottest?" The answer can change depending on clothing, hair, and make-up. Elections are the equivalent of asking "which girl would you marry?" That takes a little more thought....
...for some people, although I think that number is decreasing.