Originally published @ 10:55 pm, Tue 3rd May 2011
I'm voting "Yes" to the Alternate Vote (AV); not so much as for fairer votes, as for giving voters more choice and to have better discussions on the doorstep with people who are not inclined to back one of the two leading candidates in any particular election.
I don't believe AV will change any General Election result that much, and certainly will have a much smaller impact than the parties' key messages, the parties' leaders and other significant events. Just look at the last weeks of last year's and 1992's campaign for dramatic examples of that.
To expand, at the last General Election, people were looking for a new trust in politicians. Yet in many seats where say the Liberal Democrats were third, Labour and Conservatives were meeting Lib Dem supporters on the doorstep and asking them not to vote for what they believe in, but to vote tactiaclly. It doesn't come across well.
Meanwhile, whole days of media coverage would be lost to how to vote tactically, to what in the end was a wasted purpose.
Choice for voters, and better discussion between parties and voters, is what AV offers.
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