May 16, 2005

Vote No to STV and Fewer Constituencies

STV should not be confused with a social disease, but its consequences could also be severe. Fewer, larger, multiple-member constituencies with some voters having 2 MLAs and others having 7 would not be a good thing. Single member constituencies allow voters to hold their MLA accountable; multiple-member ridings allow rogue MLAs to escape accountability and get elected with as little as 12.5% support. That creates an incentive to cater to special interests that will assure re-election while advocating extreme positions. Proponents say that another referendum could be held after three elections to see if voters want to go back to the system BC has used for most of the last 100 years. That wouldn't necessarily happen since it would depend on the legislature twelve years from now, a legislature that cannot be bound by this year's vote. Those are some of the reasons I'm voting no.

Many of the claims about STV are simply inaccurate including comparisons between the Citizens' Assembly and juries. Contrary to claims by proponents, the Citizens' Assembly was not randomly chosen. Would you consider a poll to be random if first it randomly selected a group of citizens, and then, before determining their opinion, it threw out all those who were happy with the status quo? That is close to how members of the Assembly were chosen. Initially 200 voters were chosen as part of a stratified random sample from each of BC's 79 constituencies. The samples were stratified so as to select an equal number of men and women and so that the age distribution would reflect the overall population. Then, as this is the first introduction of bias, letters were sent to those selected explaining the procedure and asking if they were interested in participating in the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform. Note that the full name of the Assembly includes the words "on Electoral Reform", not on studying voting systems. Of course many who received the letter and are pleased with the current system replied saying that they weren't interested. From those who expressed interest, 20 in each constituency were selected to attend local meetings to learn more about what participation would entail. Some dropped out and two were then selected from the reduced group of less than 20. Those who participated in the Assembly should be thanked for their work, but they shouldn't be viewed as randomly selected citizens who were in any way like a jury. If the same selection procedure were used in the Republic of Ireland, it is likely that the Irish Assembly would recommend that STV be rejected.