VANCOUVER/CKNW(980) - Final results from the US elections show a majority of voters are in favour of electoral reform, specifically the Single Transferrable Vote or S.T.V.
Meantime, here in BC, an electoral boundaries commission is travelling province-wide to get feedback from residents on a re-drawing of the province's electoral map.
Along with the review, the panel will recommend what the ridings might look like under the S.T.V. system.
So, what is the S.T.V. system?
Bruce Hallsor, president of Fair Voting BC says an S.T.V. system allows voters to combine ridings.
"So, you might combine the five Burnaby ridings for example into one, and when you go to vote, the NDP, the Liberals, whoever, will run up to five candidates and you can go and mark from all the candidates your first, second, third, fourth, fifth choice," he says.
A referendum on electoral reform and the S.T.V. system will be held in tandem with the next provincial election in May of 2009.
Election Day '09 was a roller-coaster for election reformers. Instant runoff voting had a great night in Minnesota, where St. Paul voters chose to implement IRV for its city elections, and Minneapolis voters used IRV for the first time—with local media touting it as a big success. As the Star-Tribune noted in endorsing IRV for St. Paul, Tuesday’s elections give the Twin Cities a chance to show the whole state of Minnesota the benefits of adopting IRV. There were disappointments in Lowell and Pierce County too, but high-profile multi-candidate races in New Jersey and New York keep policymakers focused on ways to reform elections; the Baltimore Sun and Miami Herald were among many newspapers publishing commentary from FairVote board member and former presidential candidate John Anderson on how IRV can mitigate the problems of plurality elections.