Wednesday 26 September 2007

The Case Against First Past the Post

Andrew Coyne's article from The National Post.

These anomalies and distortions are reflections of what goes on at the riding level: The winner is not the candidate who receives a majority of the votes cast, but simply the one who comes in first place. With four candidates, it can be done with as little as 25% of the vote plus one. The other 75% of the voters are rewarded for doing their civic duty with?bupkus. All in all, between one-half and two-thirds of all the votes cast in a given election are, in this sense, wasted.

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