Monday 16 May 2011

Out the box thinking - Electoral Reform.

Just a couple of ideas that people may not have heard of or considered when thinking about voting reform.

1) Weighted Voting in Parliament or Council.

This was suggested to the Jenkins commission on electoral reform but ruled out, out of hand. With electronic voting, it would be quite simple to implement now we are out of the technological dark ages.

Basically MPs/Councillors would not each have one vote, they would have a number/proportion of votes in proportion to the actual vote they (or their party) received. i.e. in the 2010 general election, the Labour party received 29% of the vote but have 39% of the MPs (substantial over-representation) so each of their MP's should only have 0.75 of a vote... Meanwhile The Greens received 1% of the national vote but received only
.15% of the seats in parliament (1 MP - substantial under representation) so she should have 6.5 votes(!).

There would need to be a few tweaks 6.5 votes is too much for one person, so there should be one or two top up greens, and UKIP got 3% of the vote and no MPs, so there would need to be top ups there to share out their 'power'. But I am sure you get the idea.

2) Non-Geographic Constituencies

My primary concern in UK politics right now is our government being subservient to the EU commission. Many people share this as a primary concern (920,000 of us in the 2010 general election) - but because we are spread across the country, our 3% of the national vote didn't give us 3% of the seats in parliament (20 MPs!), it gave us none. I would happily exchange my right to vote for my local constituency MP for a right for my vote to count towards a non-geographic MP... An issue specific MP!

So *instead* of voting for one of my local candidates, I would cast my vote nationally for a party that supported the UK leaving the EU - for every (say) 50,000 votes a party receives it should get a 'non-geogrpahic' MP! It would be for each voter to choose how to cast their vote - locally for a candidate, or nationally for a party/issue.

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