At 14:21 11/04/2011 +0100, Christian Hennig wrote:
>On Mon, 11 Apr 2011, John Whittington wrote:
>
>>At 13:27 11/04/2011 +0100, Christian Hennig wrote:
>>>Well, if people don't vote according to their true wishes, they
>>>shouldn't complain if they don't get what they want. That's democracy.
>>
>>True, but I don't think that's really the situation I was
>>contemplating. I was talking about a situation in which people were
>>exploiting the existence of an AV system, with their 'true wish' being
>>that their first vote would be a gesture 'to make a point' and their
>>second-choice vote being the for the candidate they actually wanted to win.
>
>If "making a point" is the first choice of a majority, this may well
>happen under FPTP as well. Particularly in constituencies with supposedly
>"safe seats" why shouldn't they "make a point" if they think that voting
>for their true favourite won't make a difference anyway? It may even
>happen more easily, because under AV you need 50%, including
>later preferences.
True - and that obviously happens. However, I still think it could become
a much more prevalent practice with AV, since some voters would believe
that they could 'make their point' (in relation to a candidate they didn't
really want to win) and STILL be able to have an influence on who actually
won, whereas with FPTP they would have to forego that latter opportunity
(relying on not to many others doing the same as them) if they wanted to do
that 'making a point'.
Kind Regards,
John
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