pontman

Off the topic of candy and back to voting. I feel we should be concentrating more on what system heeds the best results as opposed to how 'fair' we believe the system to be. Shouldn't the Question be which system gives us a candidate that best represents the beliefs of the constituents?

So Vote AV, the nation will get more candy and everybody wins.

But what your really implying is that this is somewhat unfair, that one should not be able to sacrifice their first vote, in the knowledge that their second preference will count. Your saying that if a candidate is unlikely to win ( perhaps not party of the major parties ) people should not attempt to vote for him, even if the candidate has ideals that are better for the area/society/ the economy and humanity as a whole since one would not waste their vote on a candidate that is unlikely to win. Now, if people get preferences voting for this ideal independent is not such a bad idea, since we can vote for him without worrying that since his not part of a major political party we will waste our vote, and indeed he may just win.

Silverfox, Yes you are correct, but, no you don't get 3 bits of candy, you just get one, just your most preferred of the available candy. So stop being greedy and eating all my damn candy.

I wish I lived in your world, I would walk right into a Ford dealership then ask for a Ferrari then drive home in the free Ferrari that somehow appeared using your warped logic.

silverfox, clearly you don't get all 3, your just telling the shop keep in what order you would prefer, your going into the shop and saying, I will have some candy, the shop keep then asks what candy, you say KitKat, he tells you his out, so you say Twix, he tells you his also out then you roll your eyes and say how about a Mars Bar... In your world you just sampled 3 bars, but in reality you only had one.

True, and I guess also the point. Your vote counts more towards what you want with AV then without. For instance I may want Vegemite, Marmite then Jam in that order, now the problem is that I am with a 50/50 bunch of English and Australian people and we only have money for one spread, now, I doubt either of the Yeast extracts would win without AV, and indeed both majority of the English and Australians might be in the mood for a yeasty extract, but they will never agree on what. So the AV may annoy a small minority of Jam lovers, but most of us got the type of spread we wanted, even if not the exact brand. Now with politics you could view for instance the Jam as the Left and the Mights as the Right if you will.

It REALLY is simple and honestly the system makes a lot of sense. I think it does benefit smaller parties a lot, since people have the freedom to vote for and independent or smaller party, without, throwing there vote away if they have little change of getting in. Yes, this sounds like having your proverbial pie and also eating it, but this is really beside the point, since everyone gets to decide where ones preferences lay and in the end it benefits the country buy giving more chance to smaller players.

Clearly what Loz's says is the case, your not about to end up with 3 politicians representing you.

Ordering all 74 senate candidates is mighty painful....

Its for the best.

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In Australia political parties provide how to vote cards with the order to list your preferences, alleviating the need for numeracy and allowing even the most simple minded individual to tow the party line.

Any change to the voting system will clearly incur a cost, Although I think it will be a large initial investment but I cannot see why there would be any greater ongoing costs. On the subject of the two party system in Australia. Liberal has for many years formed a coalition with the Australian National Party. Last election the Libs won 44 seats and the Nationals 21 and Labour 72, while only the Coalition or Labour ( or this new Labour Coalition ) have been in power for many years, the Nationals do still run against Liberal candidates although the Nationals have no change of forming a government off their own backs. So while on a smaller scale, the complexities of three parties still exist.

Girls Just Want To Have Fun - Cyndi Lauper