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AV Voting, Auf Wiedersehen Pet style!!
craig1410 - 5/5/11 at 03:30 PM

http://www.benjamindennehy.com/2011/04/12/auf-wiedersehen-pet-say-no-to-av/

I'm sure this will have been posted already but a quick search yielded nothing.

Cracked me up with laughter - especially the incredulous tones in their voices at the outcome!

Triton - 5/5/11 at 03:59 PM

That is spot on...

Benzine - 5/5/11 at 04:32 PM

So none of them want yellow, but 3 voted for yellow. When the result is announced 5 of the 6 voters show their disaproval even though 3 of them would clearly be happy with yellow, if they didn't want yellow at all they could have left it out.

As they all had different first choices and nobody had any of the other's firsts as their seconds, the majority would be happiest with yellow.

Has anyone actually voted based on this? XD

[Edited on 5/5/11 by Benzine]

craig1410 - 5/5/11 at 04:41 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Benzine
So none of them want yellow, but 3 voted for yellow. When the result is announced 5 of the 6 voters show their disaproval even though 3 of them would clearly be happy with yellow, if they didn't want yellow at all they could have left it out.

As they all had different first choices and nobody had any of the other's firsts as their seconds, the majority would be happiest with yellow.

Has anyone actually voted based on this? XD

[Edited on 5/5/11 by Benzine]


I can see your point but the problem as I see it is that people don't pay so much attention to 2nd, 3rd, 4th choices compared to the thought they put into their first choice. This recklessness could have unexpected consequences as shown here.

Think of it this way - who is your 2nd favourite football team? And your third? And your fourth? The farther down the list you go the harder it is to decide and many (most) people won't put the effort in to decide.

Also, before anyone points it out, this vote wasn't conducted according to AV rules. I just thought it was amusing and topical.


[Edited on 5/5/2011 by craig1410]

jacko - 5/5/11 at 04:50 PM

Brill and spot on

whitestu - 5/5/11 at 04:57 PM

The point about AV is that if you only want to vote for one candidate then that's what you do. You don't have to make a second or third choice.

Stu

craig1410 - 5/5/11 at 04:59 PM

quote:
Originally posted by whitestu
The point about AV is that if you only want to vote for one candidate then that's what you do. You don't have to make a second or third choice.

Stu


Actually that's not always true, I believe in Australia you have to rank all candidates. I could be wrong though and I'm not sure what happens if you don't, whether it is considered a spoiled paper.

Benzine - 5/5/11 at 05:19 PM

quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
I can see your point but the problem as I see it is that people don't pay so much attention to 2nd, 3rd, 4th choices compared to the thought they put into their first choice. This recklessness could have unexpected consequences as shown here.


How is it recklessness if 3 of them would be happy with yellow, but NONE of them would be happy with each others primary vote? Their reactions to the result is a complete contradiction. Isn't that assuming that nobody cares what they put for their preferences? I certainly would care. I wouldn't stroll into the voting booth and rank ALL of the available options, many of the candidates would offer completely conflicting policies. The option is there to vote for 1 single party/candidate.


quote:
Originally posted by craig1410
Think of it this way - who is your 2nd favourite football team? And your third? And your fourth? The farther down the list you go the harder it is to decide and many (most) people won't put the effort in to decide.


I hate football If it were music instead of football teams them if there were, say, 6 parties to vote for I'd only vote for a couple, there's no way i'd rank all 6 due to what I said above about conflicting policies. If the parties were:

Death metal alliance
Black metal party
UK garage
Dubstep
Prog rock party
Wham 4 life party

I'm hardly likely to go 1/Death metal 2/Black metal 3/Prog rock (first 3 relevant to my interests) and then for some insane reason go 4/UK garage 5/Wham 4 life party (Wham are tantamount to the BNP btw)

Nobody who listens to something awesome like Gorguts is going to vote for some tosh like Ms. Dynamite

AV cat

Ninehigh - 5/5/11 at 05:37 PM

I still have no idea what's going on with it, and still think we should trial the system before making a definite choice. I mean do we get a vote in 3 years time to keep it?

craig1410 - 5/5/11 at 06:09 PM

quote:
Originally posted by Ninehigh
I still have no idea what's going on with it, and still think we should trial the system before making a definite choice. I mean do we get a vote in 3 years time to keep it?


I'd imagine that we're stuck with it for a few parliaments at least otherwise the £250million it'll cost to implement would probably need to be spent again to revert back. In all likelihood if we get it now then we'll be stuck with it forever.

My biggest fear with AV is that it would encourage wishy-washy "compromise" MP candidates who don't have any strong views on anything and will try to navigate right down the middle of the electorate. The whole point of democracy is to give people choices and this is eroded if all the choices end up looking the same.