1. Electoral Reform in BC …….but, why? (or why not?)
‘Electoral System’
translates the votes people cast into the composition of a legislature (and selection of government)
Electoral Reform Referendum: October 22nd – November 30, 2018
Ballots are in the mail….
Two Questions
BC will be asked whether they want to switch to PR and to rank preferences
Not the first time……
2005 – 58% voted in favour, but 60% was the threshold…..
2009 – Support dropped to 39%
This time…..
Simple majority – 50% +1
PR supporters say voters can cast a ballot for the party that best represents their
interests without feeling their votes will be wasted……
Opponents argue the existing system has been tried and tested…serves BC well
with stable governments. They argue a change to PR will destroy the connection
between the voter and their local representative and allow ‘extremists’ in legislature….
How should one vote? Let’s get informed……

2. First-Past-The-Post System (Single Member Plurality – (SMP))
Canada, UK, USA, India……
voters in each electoral district elect single representative….
Simplicity?
In theory, allows voters to choose individual candidates based on their own merit….
Reality is….party solidarity diminishes ‘direct democracy’
produces minority gov’ts, but often gives winning party a majority
Decisive style of governance?
Minority gov’ts can lead to coalitions, however – fragility? ……is this such a bad thing though?
Facilitates a strong opposition and broad based political parties
Disadvantage to ‘fringe’ parties of the left and right
Elected representatives generally represents a particular district
Ex. Canada – MP represents a riding of persons
Distortion in the First-Past-The-Post System?

3. Electoral Reform …What is the best ‘representative government?’
Proportional Representation (PR)
electoral system where the proportion of seats party receives in the legislature reflects the proportion of votes obtained
How it works….
Voters cast vote for a party (not a candidate)
electoral districts are larger
many representatives from same area
not a single representative from single area (FPTP)
Votes counted and seats divided by % gained by each party
makes % of votes = %of seats in legislature
used by other liberal democracies
Israel, Netherlands, Peru, Slovakia, Sweden, etc….
Goal:
reflect as wide a range of opinions as possible…..
Pros:
reduces % of wasted votes
greater representation of minority parties
tends to create coalition governments (or is this a con?)
Cons:
tends to fragment party system
can give small parties power out of proportion to % electoral support
elections centered even more on party, not individuals
parties have greater control of who fills seats
coalition governments tend to be politically unstable…..
….but, don’t be swayed by this graphic alone…..bias?!!

4. Dual Member Proportional System (DMP). …
Dual Member Proportional System (DMP) ….not currently used anywhere in the world….
most electoral districts combined with a neighbouring district and represented by two MLAs (exceptions: large rural districts)
Characteristics:
Voting:
parties nominate up to two candidates per district
parties specify their first and second candidates on the ballot
voters vote for one option on the ballot
Counting:
Urban and Semi-Urban Districts
the first candidate of the party with the most votes in the district wins seat
second seat is won by a party based on its share of the popular vote BC wide
Independent candidates win if they place first or second in the district
a party must get at least 5% of the vote province-wide to get any second seats
Large Rural District
the candidate with the most votes wins
Results
results are proportional at the provincial level
the candidate in second place may not win the second seat,
because second seats are allocated to parties to get a proportional outcome
Representation
between 87 and 95 MLAs
two MLAs in urban and semi-urban districts, likely represented by MLAs from different parties
****IF DMP adopted, an independent electoral boundaries commission will decide boundaries after referendum****

5. Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)
this electoral system is used in Scotland (must be good, aye?), Germany and New Zealand (among others…)
Two types of MLAs
District MLAs elected by FPTP
Regional MLAs
represent a group of electoral districts
elected from a party list so that each party’s share of vote is reflected in legislature
Voting (two possibilities…..TBD):
Voters have two votes – one for a candidate and one for a party
Voters vote only for a candidate (counts for the candidate and candidate’s party)
In both cases above, the regional member is elected from a list of candidates
prepared by the party. There are three possible types of party lists:
closed list – voters vote a party’s list of candidates
open list – voters vote for an indiv. candidate on party list
open list with party option – voters vote for a candidate or endorse a party’s
list of candidates
***a legislative committee will decide whether voters have one vote or two and what type of party list is used***

6. Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) Cont’d
Counting:
total # of seats a party gets is based on its share of popular vote (in BC)
candidate with most votes in a district wins
district seats are ‘topped up’ by regional seats so that the total # of seats
a party gets roughly matches its share of the popular vote (BC-wide)
a party must get 5% of the vote to get any regional seats
Representation:
between 87 and 95 seats
a voter will have one MLA representing their electoral district and several
MLAs representing their region
if adopted, at least 60% of MLAs would be district MLAs, but the exact
ratio of district MLAs to regional MLAs would be decided by a committee
Electoral Districts:
districts would be larger than they are now (and fewer of them….)
if adopted, a legislative committee will determine the # of MLAs in each region after the referendum
if adopted, an independent electoral boundaries commission will determine district and regional boundaries

7. Rural-Urban Proportional (RUP)
Two PR Systems at work here…..
Single Transferable Vote
Mixed Member
Voting:
Urban and Semi-Urban Districts (STV)
Voters rank preferred candidates (1, 2, 3, 4, etc….)
Voters can rank as many candidates as they wish
Parties can run multiple candidates in a district…..
Rural (MMP)
See MMP (Regional MLAs…..)
Counting:
several rounds of counting are usually required
each district has a minimum # of votes needed to win one seat in a district. This is called a ‘quota’ and varies district to district, depending on how many votes and how many seats there are.
any candidate that reaches the quota is elected
if elected candidate has more votes than the quota, their extra votes are transferred to other candidates using the voter’s next choice
candidates with the fewest votes are dropped and their votes are transferred to other candidates using the voter’s next choice
Counting continues in this way until all seats in the district are filled
****Rural Districts follow Mixed Member Proportional System****