Message to the NDP: keep voting system simple

B.C.’s NDP government places great emphasis on its public-engagement process about this fall’s referendum on electoral reform. They’re proud of the record number of submissions received, and last week they announced the findings of their consultation.

The government says participant submissions have informed how the referendum will be structured. However, a deeper read of the report suggests that the public’s values are more in line with our existing first-past-thepost (FPTP) voting system than any of the three proportional-representation alternatives proposed. In addition, key information, including electoral maps and important voting-system specifics, will not be available to the public until after the referendum is over.

Participants in the government’s consultation process were asked to select from a number of values that are important to them when it comes to voting and representation in the legislature. Of all the options, the greatest number of participants — an outright majority — selected “a voting system that is easy to understand.”

Our current electoral system meets this criterion, simply and clearly. Every election, the candidate who receives the most votes in each of B.C.’s electoral districts becomes that area’s single MLA. That’s it.

None of the three proposed proportional systems comes close to the ease of understanding achieved by FPTP. The proposed rural-urban system tries to meld not one, but two highly-complex voting systems. In urban areas, STV would be in place, which uses convoluted formulas and weighting methods to translate votes into electoral outcomes, while a mixed-member proportional method — which in itself combines FPTP with a list-selection method — would be in place in yet-to-be-specified rural areas.

The dual-member proportional system, which the report claims is “a relatively simple system to understand,” combines single-MLA districts into larger two-MLA districts. At election time, the candidate with the most votes in that riding becomes one of that district’s two MLAs. However, the candidate with the second-highest number of votes doesn’t necessarily become the second MLA. This is because the second seats are distributed to achieve provincewide proportionality, a principle that can override the local preferences of voters.

There’s no question British Columbians are smart enough to understand complex electoral systems, but simplicity is key to ensuring transparency in electoral outcomes. Participants’ clear preference for understandability in our voting system is unfortunately not reflected in any of the proposed proportional options.

In another key finding, the report found “the most popular form of representation (is) a single MLA for each electoral district.” Again, with 87 MLAs for 87 electoral ridings, FPTP is clear and simple.

On the other hand, all three of the proposed proportional models have either more than one MLA or a system of single-MLA ridings combined with regional-“list” MLAs. It’s worth noting that the means of selecting these list MLAs is one of many key pieces of information that will not be available to voters before the referendum, and instead will be determined by politicians after the fact.

Under the proposed rural-urban proportional method, urban ridings will have up to seven MLAs in very large districts. Concerningly, we will not know what those electoral districts will look like, nor how many MLAs we can expect in our home ridings until after the referendum.

In the 2009 referendum, in which the STV proportional model was soundly defeated, maps were available to the public and may have played a significant role in the outcome. This may explain why the NDP is so reluctant to provide this critical information this time around.

The NDP, which has committed from Day 1 to campaign in favour of proportional representation, ought to take a good long read of its own report. British Columbians are intelligent and engaged and have made their perspectives clear in their 90,000-plus submissions. This engagement ought to be rewarded by ensuring a fair and transparent process, and providing voters with the facts they need to cast an informed vote this fall. As American founding father Thomas Paine said, “It is error only, and not truth, that shrinks from inquiry.”