[Marxism] Washington Green member & Hamilton C. student on Vancouver electoral reform

[Brian Shannon <Brian_Shannon@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Experience as a Green Party member in Washington State led Young Han
'06 to apply for an Emerson grant to study electoral reform. An
economics major, Han chose the project based on his personal interest,
rather than academic goals. "I realized how skewed the system was
against the third party," said Han. His project, titled
"Single-transferable Vote in the Rhetoric of Electoral Reform," brought
him to Vancouver, where electoral reform is at the forefront of public
issues. Han's project was to "study how electoral reform advocates have
framed the issue to make it accessible to the general public," he
explained.

Electoral reform refers to a change in the system by which the
government allocates votes and translates the votes into
representation. Currently, members of the United States Congress are
elected by single member districts. The election of a member in one
district has no effect on any other district. For example, if a third
party gets 5 percent of votes in each district, the party collectively
would have received 5 percent of votes in the country; however, the
party would still not be represented in Congress. "It leaves a segment
of the populous unrepresented," said Han.

Several countries are discussing electoral reform to allow for
proportional representation; if reform is successful, a party that
receives 5 percent of a countries vote, they would get 5 percent of the
seats in the governing body. Electoral reform would require a public
vote. Han's project focused on how governments are going about helping
the general public understand electoral reform. "It is such a little
understood issue," said Han, "and it is important that people
understand it so they can cast an educated vote."
. . .
A single-transferable vote system would provide proportional
representation while ensuring that votes are explicitly for candidates
rather than party lists. Voters may vote for a first-choice and
second-choice candidate, and if their first-choice is either elected or
eliminated, their second-choice vote is counted. "[Single-transferable
vote] did not pass by 2 percent," said Han. It needed 60 percent to
pass. "But the fact that it got 58 percent [of votes] means a lot."

Han concluded that the issue of electoral reform became much more
appealing to the public when people understood it. "It is very
difficult to present," he said "[advocates] need to base their campaign
on emotional appeal until there is a better understanding."

http://www.hamilton.edu/news/more_news/display.cfm?id=9742

from Brian Shannon


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