Comment on ABC 2025 Election Watch Party
gedhrel@lemmy.world 1 day agoChoice-ranking systems aren’t hard to explain: “put these people in the order you prefer them”.
The anti-AV campaign had Cameron reading out an algorithm for the vote counting process in a dull voice and trying to establish: “yes well I went to Eton and although I am very clever I find this difficult”. The AV referendum failed in large part because it was a LibDem thing and people wanted to give Clegg a shoeing for going back on his election pledges. (That Clegg got outplayed by Cameron tells you everything you need to know about what a useless chancer he is.)
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 23 hours ago
Well, put it this way, whats harder?
Everybody of voting age has to vote.
Or (for example),
Number the candidates in order of most preferred. (Ranked Choice)
I think the first one is simpler to communicate than the second, and in an electoral reform decision like this simplicity of communication is very important.
But thats my point, not that IRV or MMP, et al, are uniquely hard or complicated to understand.
gedhrel@lemmy.world 23 hours ago
A solution to “people feel disempowered” isn’t “force them to express an opinion”. If turnout is low then give the lie to “my vote doesn’t matter”.
Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 21 hours ago
“Forcing” by essentially hitting people on the head with Parsley isn’t exactly the same as the sentiment in your comment.
If people really don’t want to vote in Australia, they don’t vote, theres fines sure, but they’re not big, and i’d be surprised if they chase people for it.
But theres more people than you’d think who never enrolled to vote, thereby never getting a fine, and also never voting. I’s listening to a podcast, i think it was Ben Raue’s, where they demonstrated that the participation rate is actually probably lower than reported due to non-enrolled people not voting. So in percentage terms its maybe high eighties, still good… but… So the rosy picture sold by the media isn’t quite on the money.
This is a consumerist centric view to take. People have self regard for themselves and their immediates above others. I’m not saying some neo-lib greed is good shit, we humans can just find it difficult to see much further past our immediate priorities.
Parties, and Governments aren’t a mall filled with products for casual perusal, they’re a tool we’ve collectively come up with to deliver a greater vision for the tribe’s success in general. But these tools need feedback, and they need energy to function properly.
They only work if theres participation. If people don’t want to bother with that, then they’ll find sooner or later an even less generally amenable decision making system will guide the future of their tribe.
Its the same as the old Bread and Circuses saying, distracting the masses and suppressing their voice makes it easier to seize more control.
gedhrel@lemmy.world 21 hours ago
I’d say “democratic” rather than “consumerist”; that’s a really odd choice of term (and a poor one I think). I live in a ward that’s solidly single-party in an FPTP system. Whether I vote or not is strictly irrelevant and always will be. There is no incentive for my representative to be anything other than a party cypher.
I’d rather see a PR system in place (STV by preference, but we’d probably end up with AMS so that party sinecures are still possible). For single-seat wards, I’d sooner have ranked-choice, because at the moment people have to thread a needle in order to attempt to stave off the headbanger candidates.
Mandatory voting I’d be less keen on unless it came with a “reopen nominations” but the issue with that is that that option would win by a landslide.