Comments on: Citizens Assembly Must Endorse Open Lists

By: Nick J Boragina

Nick J Boragina — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 01:26:48 +0000

I’d prefer to see a ranked list.

By: AamirH

AamirH — Fri, 06 Apr 2007 00:50:59 +0000

Nick, on the open list regional ballot Greg is proposing you would make ONE mark on your most preferred Green Party member (say Bob). There’s no other ranking involved. This would count as a vote for the Greens as well as pushing Bob up the Green’s list. Multiple marks on the open ballot would ruin the ballot.

By: Nick J Boragina

Nick J Boragina — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 00:25:08 +0000

what I meant is this;

lets say, for example sake, Toronto has 10 PR members, and I get an open list ballot. I vote for the Greens, which now allows me to rank, on my open list, 10 Green PR candidates. Maybe I want to vote for Bob, Sally, and James. IMO I should be allowed to do so without having to worry about ranking/voting for June, Frank, Victor, and Laura.

By: democraticspace

democraticspace — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:26:00 +0000

in the system i’ve proposed, you simply mark an X next to your preferred candidate. you don’t rank candidates. it allows voters to express a preference — the principle here is plurality, not majoritarian. for parties earning regional seats, the candidate(s) with the most votes are elected.

if MMP is adopted, we should give people time to get used to it (though my system is not that different from our current system). i believe that once people understand it, in time, we might move to a ranked ballot system for both local and regional candidates (doing it right away would lead to massive dis-proportionality, as it would squeeze small parties out at the local level; once smaller parties elect MPPs regionally, they will be better positioned to win local seats since they will have the advantage of incumbency, so i think ranked ballots, in time, will become less problematic for small parties at the local level).

By: Nick J Boragina

Nick J Boragina — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 23:07:49 +0000

open lists are always better then closed lists. There is a ‘but’ though. One of the problems with Australia’s voting system is that you have to rank all the candidates. Having an open list is fine and dandy, but it should not be a requirement to list all of the people on that list.