Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform
Tonight aloniel and I went to the Burnaby Public Forum of the Citizen's Assembly on Electoral Reform. I went with my research done and opinions mostly formed. I was thinking about speaking about my recent realization that the entire debate has to be framed by the question of whether or not we want to encourage political parties. Happily, for me, I didn't have to present or ask any questions because the other people there had done their homework and asked all my questions for me.
The presentations were good, but aloniel and I noticed that they were getting redundant, so we left at the halfway break. My thoughts on the topic were refined and I got some good handouts. aloniel was tired and bored and hungry.
After we left, aloniel made a good point. She thinks that the average voter doesn't care a whit for all of this political science and just wants a simple ballot. I have to say that that's a good point. The average voter doesn't vote in civic elections, and when they do they vote for the mayor and either ignore the rest or make patterns like on a Scantron. That means that preferential ballots and alternative vote systems might discourage voters. In the interest of representational democracy, I think the most important thing is voter turnout. It isn't a very representational government if it only represents half the voters. Unfortunately, that probably means that we need political parties to keep things simple. After simplicity, the most important thing is that all votes count, and lead to proportionate representation.
What about all of you? Have you thought about any of this? Do you consider yourself an average citizen, when it comes to involvement in electoral reform? Do you think I'm right about simplicity?
The presentations were good, but aloniel and I noticed that they were getting redundant, so we left at the halfway break. My thoughts on the topic were refined and I got some good handouts. aloniel was tired and bored and hungry.
After we left, aloniel made a good point. She thinks that the average voter doesn't care a whit for all of this political science and just wants a simple ballot. I have to say that that's a good point. The average voter doesn't vote in civic elections, and when they do they vote for the mayor and either ignore the rest or make patterns like on a Scantron. That means that preferential ballots and alternative vote systems might discourage voters. In the interest of representational democracy, I think the most important thing is voter turnout. It isn't a very representational government if it only represents half the voters. Unfortunately, that probably means that we need political parties to keep things simple. After simplicity, the most important thing is that all votes count, and lead to proportionate representation.
What about all of you? Have you thought about any of this? Do you consider yourself an average citizen, when it comes to involvement in electoral reform? Do you think I'm right about simplicity?