Fair Votes Referendum

I was pleased to hear the news today that a date has been set for a referendum on the reform of our voting system. I was disappointed when the coalition Government revealed that it would be a vote on using the Alternative Vote system in future, as I’d been hoping for STV, but as I’ve said all along, in a coalition, we have to make sacrifices on some things to gain results on the more important things, and to get a referendum on some form of voting reform is a big step forwards, no matter the form offered.

AV is not proportional representation, but it’s far better than what we’ve got: it would be almost impossible for any system to be less proportional than FPTP; following the 2005 election, Labour won 40% of the available seats, despite only taking 35.2% of the vote. In the 2010 election, my MP was elected by less than 50% of the electorate in my constituency.
On the flip-side, AV would allow voters to rank their choices and an MP would only be elected after gaining the support of more than half of their electors. It would be possible to only vote for the candidates you liked, and perhaps even register a preference to re-open nominations over electing one candidate.

Unfortunately, some Conservative MPs are trying to influence the referendum already, ten months before it even happens, by making uncounted votes – those of electors who choose not to cast their opinion – mean a vote against the proposal, by demanding a threshold of 40% of the electorate. Whilst it may be fair to assume that a non-voter does not care, it is fundamentally wrong to assume that they do not want the proposal. If a member of the electorate actively cares and wishes to vote against something, after all, they will do so.

Thresholds are not used in elections, and I question the need for them at a referendum; indeed, Bernard Jenkin MP, who I believe to be the proposer of the threshold, is one of 95% of MPs who wouldn’t have been elected had there been a 40% threshold in May. I believe that it would be a travesty to make the very referendum deciding whether or not to use a fairer method of voting an unfair vote itself.

I’ve written to my MP conveying these thoughts because whilst I realise that the Alternative Vote system would likely not benefit the his party, Labour, I don’t see supporting a referendum as supporting AV itself, and of course, Labour promised a referendum on AV as a part of their manifesto prior to the General Election, and I want to make sure that at least one of his constituents cares about reforming the vote to make it fairer. If you’d like to write to your MP, Take Back Parliament have an excellent template and easy-to-use form to do.