On May 17, the voters of British Columbia will decide whether to implement Single-Transferable Voting for elections to the provincial legislature. STV is the same as Instant-Runoff Voting, except it applies to multi-winner elections. If it passes, there will be constituencies that elect between two and seven members to the Provincial legislative. This would make it possible for parties with as little as one-seventh of the vote (in some constituencies) to elect one representative. The same system was used in New York city between 1937 and 1947, and resulted in 5 parties being represented on the city council.
In order to pass, the measure must receive at least 60% of the vote, and it must pass in 48 of the 79 districts.
This would sound better than the gerrymandering to ensure the right result. In a fantasy world, lets say one district has 3 congressmen up for grabs. The party primaries would determine the order of the candidates. In other words, if the Republicans get enough votes for 2 representatives and the Democrats get enough for one. Then the 1st and 2nd place Republicans from the primary and the 1st place Democrat from the primary take seats. Won’t happen I know, but it’d be better for third parties I think.
I think the Fair Votes BC campaign have got their response just right to the referendum result.
If the politicians do reject STV, they will be repeating the 30 years delay in Scotland and Wales before they realised that the Kibrandon Royal Commission on the Constitution got it right in 1973 recommending STV. As Kerley, Sunderland and Richard reports now confirm.