New Voting System in British Columbia Wins and Loses
The citizens of British Columbia have voted May 17th on the recommendations made by last year's Citizens Assembly on Electoral Reform -- one of the most remarkable initiatives in deliberative democracy I've seen. (I promoted it in my article Using Citizen Deliberative Councils to Make Democracy More Potent and Awake) 57% of the population were in favor of the Citizens Assembly's innovative "single transferable vote" idea (a combination of instant runoff voting and proportional representation) -- and it was approved by a majority in 77 of 79 legislative districts. However, the legislation establishing the Citizens Assembly required a 60% supermajority. So now the debate begins over whether the majority should rule or not! Here are the vote tallies and an article from the Vancouver Sun. Personally I'm disappointed and surprised that this referendum did not win more resoundingly. I would love to know more about the media debate and advertising campaigns that preceded the elections. If you have more information, please post a comment.
posted by Tom Atlee on Thursday May 19 2005
updated on Saturday September 24 2005URL of this article:
http://www.newmediaexplorer.org/tom_atlee/2005/05/19/new_voting_system_in_british_columbia_wins_and_loses.htm
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