Local elections / AV referendum - make your vote work for you!

Please note the statement that's posted on the Aylesbury Vale District Council website:
http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/council-democracy/elections-and-voting/

"You must be included on the Electoral Register to be able to vote. The deadline for registering for this election will be Thursday 14 April 2011."

You can download the Electoral registration forms from this page too (or collect them from the AVDC offices on the High Street).

Failure to be registered will prevent you from voting at both the local council elections and the referendum on changing the parliamentary voting system (see the other blogs about that issue).

If you pay taxes - and all us do (e.g. VAT, fuel duty, tax on gross interest in your bank accounts, as well as income tax, council tax and National Insurance) then you really must participate or continue to suffer the greed of Duck House claimants, second home mortage flipping, grossly excessive chief executive salaries, etc., etc.!

If anyone wants to help the campaign for the Alternative Vote (and they don't care who you vote for in the elections, just that your vote should count), then please note the following links:

http://www.yestofairervotes.org/

There's an event this coming Monday (7th March), from 7.30pm: http://www.yestofairervotes.org/page/m/7336f9c0/4f9e076d/7006e5d/3cff44b8/3745884902/VEsH/

I'm going, so if anyone needs a lift PM me via this site.

Continuing on this theme about elections...

If you don't think your vote counts for anything, then think again!

The AV referendum (5th May 2011) is a once-in-a-long-time opportunity to change the way parliament and MP's are elected.

Currently, the system used is known as "First past the post". Basically, this means that the winner is whichever candidate obtains the largest number of votes cast in the election. OK, so what?

Well, imagine you have four candidates and the votes cast look like this:
Candidate A - 26%
Candidate B - 23%
Candidate C - 25%
Candidate D - 24%
Spoiled/ruined - 2%

Guess who wins? Exactly, Candidate A wins - but with only 26% of the vote!

Has this happened in reality? Yes, at the last General election, one candidate was elected with only 21% of the votes cast, meaning that 79% of the electorate in that constituency saw their preferred candidate lose.

Is that fair? No. Is that democratic? No - democracy is about majority rule, not minority power.

How would the Alternative Vote (AV) work differently? AV requires you to cast your vote in order of preference against the candidates. E.g.
Candidate A - 4
Candidate B - 2
Candidate C - 1
Candidate D - 3

When the votes are counted, the candidate with the lowest number of 1st choice votes is eliminated and the votes cast to that person are then reallocated to the 2nd choice on those ballot papers. This process continues until one candidate achieves at least 51% of the total votes.

So how is this better? There are two key aspects:
1) The winning candidate must have at least 51% of the total votes cast at the election;
2) You have more chance of your 1st or 2nd choice becoming elected (by a majority of votes).

Additionally, the AV referendum includes the move to reduce the number of MP's from 652 to 600, thereby reducing the cost of running parliament by at least £9.6m per year - that's almost £50million over the term of a five year government. Small change, perhaps, but - as Tesco likes to say: "Every little helps."

Is this referendum party political? No; there are MP's from all parties who are in favour of the change. There are also MP's from the two largest parties who are against it.

Many thanks to the resident who's pointed out errors with the following statement:

Why haven't we used this sort of system before?

Aha, you probably have! The European Elections (every 5 years) use the Single Transferable Vote (STV), as do the local elections in England & Wales.

It's good to know that a) people are reading the comments, and b) willing to correct / challenge a viewpoint!

So, without further ado, please note the following (with reference links):

'Since the 1999 election, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) representing England, Scotland and Wales have been elected in regional constituencies using the party list, a Closed list (i.e. candidates are chosen by parties)...

In local elections, councillors are elected forming the local administrations of the United Kingdom. A number of tiers of local council exist, at region, county, district/borough and town/parish levels. A variety of voting systems are used for local elections. In Northern Ireland and Scotland, the single transferable vote system is used, whilst in most of England and Wales the single member plurality system** is used.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elections_in_the_United_Kingdom

Despite my errors, the fact remains that our parliamentary system is broken (remember the expenses claims for a Duck House and mortgage flipping that went on) and AV is a long-overdue chance for all of us to say 'enough is enough: stop reforming UK plc whilst you refuse to be reformed'.

I hope that you all register to vote and then cast your votes in favour of changing the system: it doesn't matter who you vote for, but it should matter that whoever is elected as your MP should be required to obtain the majority of votes at every election.

Also, don't forget: these people (including the local councillors) decide how much tax you pay and how efficiently that money is spent!

**the single member plurality system

Yes, I know:

"It's never a good idea to talk politics".

However, in the event many of you are not aware, several elections are being held on Thursday, 5th May this year, including:

- Aylesbury Town Council,
- Aylesbury Vale District Council, and
- Buckinghamshire County Council

Additionally, the referendum for changing the voting system used in the UK parliamentary elections is being held at the same time. See this Wiki link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_local_elections,_2011

If you aren't yet registered to vote, do so now! Here's the link: http://www.aylesburyvaledc.gov.uk/council-democracy/elections-and-voting/electoral-registration/

It's very easy, and remember: these 'representatives' set your income tax and council tax, etc., etc.