Alternative Voting Systems
This article talks about the referendum that (at the time) was going to occur in the UK to determine how voters will continue to elect their representatives. The existing voting system at the time was first-past-the-post (FPTP) or majority rule. FPTP states that each voter get a single vote and the representative with the most votes wins the election. The referendum proposed the alternative vote (AV) as a system of selecting representatives. In the AV system, voters rank their representatives in order of preference. The total vote for everyone’s first choice is taken. If someone receives >50% of the vote, s/he is elected. Otherwise, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and the votes of that candidate go to the second choice of the voters who selected that candidate as their first choice.
The AV system makes me think of the Borda count method because they are both systems of voting that allow for a ranking system for each candidate. In my opinion, the AV system is better than the Borda count because it doesn’t allow for manipulation. It is always in the person’s best interest to rank in order of preference. This is because in the Borda count, only one tally is done and the candidate with the most votes wins. This means that a person could win without a majority of the population having voted for that person. However, in the AV system, if that candidate doesn’t have >50% of the vote, the vote is done again with one fewer candidate. This means that even if your top candidate did not win, the majority (50%) of people placed a vote for the candidate that ended up winning which makes for a happier and better represented populace.
AV is superior to FPTP for the same reason if there are multiple candidates. If there are many candidates running, then under FPTP, a candidate could win with 20% of the vote. This leaves 80% of the population unrepresented. Additionally, FPTP always dissolve into two-party systems. With AV, you can have multiple parties and a better represented population.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-12892836