British Columbia will be holding a referendum on the May 12 provincial election that everybody interested in true representative and proportional democracy should have a look at. Unlike Mixed member proportional representation which was voted on in Ontario during the last provincial election, STV [Single-Transferable Vote] provides elected and accountable MLA’s based on the voting intentions of constituents. It should appeal to anyone in a riding dominated by one party, because it provides a voice to the minority voters, as well as those who feel more than one candidate is worthy of electing. Multiple candidates from the same party can also be elected, which means that you can vote for more than one person based on the ranking system. There is no limiting factors to this system either, because it doesn’t force you to rank NDP or Green candidates, if you don’t wish to vote for them.

If you want to understand how it works, this video can be watched below:

If the video moves too quickly for you, there is a slower animation at the STV website [and it's also clearer].

The main advantage to STV is that it eliminates the problem of ridings being dominated by one kind of candidate and one kind of party. There are no “appointments” that are unelected and unaccountable, as in Ontario’s proposed MMP. Basically the ridings in B.C. would be grouped together into 20 multi-member districts that would reduce the number of total ridings, without reducing the amount of elected MLA’s. Currently ridings are elected with the FFP system [first past the post] where 30-50% of voters elect the person that represents 100% of the constituents. Under STV, 80-90% of those who voted will wind up with an elected MLA that represents them and their interests. That’s democracy.

Each riding requires a quota for an MLA to get elected, so some candidates can be elected on the first-choice ballot of the minimum quota. The “left-over” votes after the quota is met is then distributed, based on what the voter chose as their second choice, to the next candidate. If that person received the minimum quota, they are elected. The “left-over” moves on to the third candidate, and so on down the list. Your vote is only “transferred” to candidates you voted for, so if you only selected one person, then your vote is only counted for that person.

Of course there are some concerns:

So, as with most issues in BC, the truth lies somewhere in between… I am worried that if we go with STV, the sheer number of parties we have here will confuse the results even more.

When you have parties such as; Communist Party of BC, People’s Front, Platinum Party of Employers Who Think and Act to Increase Awareness, Work Less Party of British Columbia, Your Political Party of BC, and yes, even the Sex Party (which makes more sense than most of these)…

But I think that the rewards outweigh any risks, since there is still a minimum quota required to get elected. The Sex Party or Communist Party will not receive enough second, third, fourth votes in order to elect an MLA. The most likely changes will be to elect more B.C. Conservative MLA’s in NDP ridings that would never have had a Conservative MLA before, or more NDP MLA’s in Liberal ridings. It provides a voice for those ridings that never change under FPP. It isn’t as though it hasn’t had precedent. Under FPP, many candidates are elected with only 40-50% support, and yet in the BC-STV referendum in 2005, 57.69% voted in favour, but the government had decided to not be bound by a vote of less than 60%.