Alternative, Alternative Vote

Despite my personal vote and thin hopes the Alternative vote was shot down on Thursday by 70% of the British public. However, while Nick Clegg tries to extricate himself from the wreckage without losing any more dignity or major limbs to the flames, this need not be an entirely bad thing. Sure we have probably missed our last chance in the foreseeable future to reform the antique, gerrymandered-to-the-hilt voting system that we inherited from a group of inbred, semi-inebriated, sexist, racist and corrupt hereditary nobility in the nineteenth century. However, freed from the cruel restraints of reality, those of us who think there could be more to politics than choosing between two identical men in different coloured suits can abandon the grubby compromises of actual politics and go back to dreaming vastly impractical but utopian schemes for a fairer government.

With no further ado, here is my scheme for how Alternative voting could have been made into a fair and workable system if we didn't have to worry about little things like cost, vested interests and the average voter's attention span.

1) Nationalise the Internet - We'll need universal access to register and count the greater number of votes that would be cast in my envisaged scheme. This need not be too expensive as most people already have access to the internet in their homes. Set up public booths in towns and cities. The individual would still have to pay if they wanted an outlet in their house (although this could be subsidised for vulnerable people and the elderly who might find it difficult to reach public booths). Booths would be open to all for any legal purpose but voters would always have priority. Security might be a problem but this could be offset by random administrator checks and some sturdy firewalls and security settings.

2) When it is time for a regional or national election voters cast their votes in the usual way or via email (Password guarded accounts verified by registering votes in the same way they are at the moment. Hefty penalties for fraudulent use of another's account).

3) The candidate with the least votes is eliminated just as in the Alternative vote system. If one candidate gains 50% of the vote they are elected.

4) If no candidate gets 50% of the vote all of the voters in the relevant area (rather than just those who voted for the eliminated candidate) are reassembled to cast new votes without the option to vote for the candidate who has been eliminated.

5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 until a candidate gets the requisite amount of votes to win the election. If only two candidates are left and they each get 50% of the vote there will be a tiebreaker, maybe a penalty shoot out or a coin toss would do the trick ;)

This removes the only good argument against AV that I saw come out of the No to AV campaign. Namely that AV allows false proportionality as only certain people's votes are counted again after the weaker candidates are eliminated. My system (AAV?) would allow people to rethink their stance at every stage of the voting process, thus removing the need to vote tactically.