Ranked ballots give clearer picture of what voters want

Re What would have been the federal election results with a different electoral system? Sept. 22

I believe ranked ballots would help to reduce polarization because the parties would need to reach out to the core voters of other parties to be their second or third choice, instead of each party mainly appealing to their partisan core voters with a few policies designed to pander to the undecided or few swing voters.

If the electoral system changes, each party will change their policies and strategy.

At the very least, changing to ranked ballots will mean an end to strategic voting and give us a clearer picture of what voters actually want and could reduce polarization.

Brian Graff, Toronto

Re What would have been the federal election results with a different electoral system? Sept. 22

Star contributor Martin Laplante explains clearly the advantages of ranked voting over our current first-past-the-post electoral system.

There would be little or no negative campaigning, as candidates would want to remain as second choice; candidates would be less likely to follow their parties in favour of building consensus within their communities; more women and minority groups would be elected and the system would not benefit one party over the others. Last, but not least, electors would have no need to vote strategically to prevent unwanted parties from winning, hence voting results would more accurately reflect the wishes of the country.

One important factor left out of this article is that there would likely be a much higher number of voters in the population. Many eligible voters don’t bother, as they assume their vote would not count.

Margarida Krause, Guelph