(The following article is from the April 16-30, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $25/year, or $12 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $25 US per year; other overseas readers - $25 US or $35 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

Commentary by Betty Griffin, North Vancouver

     Voting in favour of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) in B.C.'s May election referendum will only transfer one undemocratic voting system to an even more undemocratic, convoluted system. That's why the many countries in the world, such as France and Germany, that use a proportional system, avoid STV like the plague. Any system that permits some voters to vote for up to seven candidates while other citizens can only vote for two, should be scrapped immediately as completely unfair, undemocratic and unconstitutional. On that basis alone, STV should be defeated.

     If further proof is needed, examine the whole voting process under STV which favours voting for the political party rather than the person.

     First, under STV the number of constituencies would shrink from 85 to just 20, creating vast geographical areas for candidates to cover and favouring party candidates rather than independents. And once elected, which MLA are you to turn to for help? Which of the seven in Victoria, or which of the two in Peace River?

     Next, time to vote, so let's look at the ballot with 20, 30, or 40 names NOT in alphabetical order that we are used to. Candidates are grouped by party, but their names are rotated at random and the order of parties rotated at random also. (This means my ballot probably doesn't look like your ballot, as names and groups are "randomly" changed.) But they aren't in alphabetical order so how do I find my little independent candidate? Never mind, take your time and rank as many candidates as you wish in order of preference, just make sure you have indicated your first preference or your ballot is not valid.

     Obviously political parties in their pre-election campaigns will urge voters to vote their party candidates, not needing to name them as no one will remember their names, and anyway, they aren't in alphabetical order.

     Now we come to the juicy part - counting the ballots - hope you're a mathematician!

     To win, a candidate must receive a minimum number of votes - called a "quota". This quota is calculated using the following equation: number of valid ballots in riding plus one, divided by the number of MLAs in riding plus one.

     If no candidate has the "quota" needed to be elected, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated but his/her second preference votes are redistributed.

     However, if a candidate is successful and has more votes than the "quota", these "surplus" votes are redistributed to the remaining candidates at a calculated transfer value - based on the next preference listed on each ballot. To calculate the transfer value, divide the candidate's surplus votes by the candidate's total votes, which results in only a fraction of a vote to be transferred to the remaining candidates. (I didn't make this up - it's taken right from the Citizens' Assembly Report.)

     It is ironic that the Citizens Assembly final report was headed "Improving Democracy in BC", considering our Liberal government's "gag law", stifling our right to freedom of speech with the penalty being imprisonment for one year or $10,000 fine, or both. (Note to readers: this law was struck down by the courts on March 27.) To safeguard democracy we need to defeat not only the STV, but most important of all, defeat the Campbell government's dictatorial rule.