General Politics Discussion

[ijmorlan]

I appreciate the intent for a protest vote, but this has knock-on consequences in our first-past-the-post system. A failure to vote for the party that stands against the party you dislike is nearly the same as a vote for the party you dislike.

This is why my personal preference for a balloting method is a slight variation on an instant runoff ranked ballot: I would add the proviso that if nobody gets a majority of ballots cast (after doing the usual re-allocation of votes as low-scoring candidates are knocked out), then the seat remains unfilled. So submitting a blank ballot, or only voting for a small number of candidates who end up getting knocked out of the process, would have a real effect: if enough people did it, none of the candidates would be elected.