B.C. Referendum — STV in a nutshell
In 2005, British Columbia held a referendum on replacing the electoral system.

A majority, 58%, of voters supported changing the electoral system to a version of “single transferable vote” (STV). However, the electoral system did not change, because it was felt that a threshold of 60% should be reached in a referendum before changing the system.

As a result, the government chose to repeat the referendum this year. It will be held on May 12, in conjunction with the provincial general election.

I am going to post a series of blog entries relating to the referendum. To begin with, what is STV? Here are the three salient features of this electoral system:

(1) on your ballot, you rank the candidates according to your preferences;
(2) during counting, if one of your candidates is eliminated (having the least number of votes at that stage), then your vote will go to your next expressed preference;
(3) if your vote helps one of your candidates get elected, then a portion of your vote will go to your next expressed preference.

That’s STV in a nutshell. If STV is adopted, then the above three points are all you would really need to understand, in order to participate in the next election.

In my next blog entry, I will elaborate on the vote-counting process under STV and give a detailed example.

For further information, I would recommend visiting the Referendum Information Office (a neutral service run by the B.C. government) at BCreferendum2009.ca.