The following is part of our on-going primer on vote reform that is based on our Democracy Papers of 2007. This is the sixth of the vote reform series.
In the 2015 federal election there was an effort made at strategic voting. It was based entirely on the strong desire to get rid of the Harper Conservatives. It failed to work. There was no trust and no leadership. And the Conservatives lost anyway.
What the proponents of strategic voting were trying to do is somewhat similar to preferential voting. They just wanted you to cut out the sympathy vote for a loser and go directly to your second choice. The only problem is the logistics of making it happen.
People have a right in a democracy to vote for a loser. In municipal elections, the ballots are quite often loaded with losers. Even in provincial elections you can often get a religious nut or a communist who wants to make a statement cluttering the ballot. As a voter, you know that these people will get only a few votes. A vote for one of these people can be akin to spoiling your ballot but you know the vote will be counted.
These losers serve as something of a democratic relief valve. How many times in a particularly vituperative municipal election have we cast votes for ‘none of the above’ and used some of these losers as a figurative stick-in-the-eye for the obvious winners? Our second or third choice would also be for a loser if we could find one. It is why we are appalled at the idea of having voters mark their listed choices on ballots—to be counted if necessary to determine who is the first to pass the 50 per cent mark. Making those losers the choosers is a frightening thought.
The ideal solution is the run-off election. Our excuse used to be that run-offs were too expensive but with Internet voting, that is no longer true. Run-offs are not only democratic but they offer a short cooling off period that allows us all to draw a breath, think it through and make an informed decision. And we have the knowledge of the first vote to assist us. This is strategic voting with our collective second thoughts. It is why the French say about their run-off system that the first time you vote with your heart; the second time you vote with your head.
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Copyright 2016 © Peter Lowry
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