In the referendum – say YES to AV

VOTERS in the Six Counties are well aware that there’s elections on (for the Assembly and local government) but what about the referendum?
It has barely got a mention in the news and that might continue to be the case. It will certainly be some time, and you might have to travel some distance, before you come across mention of it on a lamp-post. It doesn’t have a face and it doesn’t sit high up the priority list for parties in the middle of two elections. But it shouldn’t be ignored.
When you go into the polling booth on May 5th you have three jobs of work:
1) Vote for your preferred candidates for Assembly MLA positions;
2) Vote for your preferred candidates for local councillors;
3) And say YES or NO as to whether or not you want the system for electing MPs to be changed to the Alternative Vote (AV) system.
MPs are currently elected under a first-past-the-post (FPTP) system - the candidate with the highest number of votes gets the job. When you vote for an MP at present, you mark a single X beside your preferred candidate.
AV stands for Alternative Vote. The AV system is more like the PR system used to elect MLAs and councillors.
When you vote under AV you rank candidates. You mark a 1 or 2 or 3, etc, alongside the candidates according to your order of preference. If a candidate receives a majority of first-preference votes (more people put them as number one than all the rest combined), then they are elected. If no candidate gains a majority on first preferences, then the candidate who finished last is eliminated and their second-preference votes on the first count are redistributed among those remaining. This process is repeated until someone gets over 50% in any round of counting.
A significant difference between AV and the PR we are more familiar with is that only one candidate is elected in each constituency; PR elections normally have several seats per constituency.
The biggest criticism of the current system for electing an MP is that it is possible for someone to be elected with a small proportion of the votes in a constituency.
Under AV, those elected will have a degree of support from a majority of those who voted in their constituency.
AV is the system in place for Irish Presidential elections.
AV is fairer than the current system. It throws up a more representative result. It may fall a bit short of the PR system in favour and in place for the Assembly and council elections but it represents a move towards it.
If you follow the logic of how you cast your vote for MLAs and councillors - in order of preference - you’ll find the question posed in the referendum easy to answer . . .
Vote for change.
Vote YES.