It is well known that Republican run States have pushed for greater use of the most complex ballot papers and electronic voting systems because the Republicans know that people they would call white "trailer trash", who mostly vote Democrat, are more likely to spoil their ballot papers by mistake because they are confused how to fill in their ballot papers. Indeed, it has been argued that the 2% plus of the vote not counted in Ohio at the last presidential election could have tipped the state back to the Democrats had the votes been counted manually.
1) The lessons from this ? Only have one type of voting system on one given day.
2) Educate people on TV, through information leaflets and at school about how to vote.
or three
3) Stick with first past the post or have a simple version of proportional representation like the Alternative Vote,which I prefer to the single transferable vote anyway - even if it is Lib Dem policy (oops, disagreeing with party policy again !)
Note : Please note I am not calling economically deprived people in Scotland trailer trash.
2 comments:
Nick, whatever your view on the Alternative Vote it is not proportional representation, any more than the current system is.
Also, you referred to the high level of spoilt ballots under the new system of voting in Scotland. There were far more spoilt ballots in the elections for the Scottish Parliament using the system the Sciots have used twice before (additional member) than in the new system for local elections (STV).
That doesn't invalidate your first two points though - both of which I agree with.
Voting is an important activity since it is how we decide who is best suited to run a country. Do you really want idiots doing something as important as this?
I say that we really do not want idiots voting, so please make the forms intentionally difficult to understand, so only the smart and motivated voter's opinion is counted.
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