Alternative vote: comments from Aussies, please!

[HomerJay]

We use STV in Wales. It is a good system for fairly representing the voters IMO.

It's split isn't it? 2/3 fptp and 1/3 apv.

[Pappa]

We use STV in Wales. It is a good system for fairly representing the voters IMO.

It's split isn't it? 2/3 fptp and 1/3 apv.

Yes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/wales/6467541.stm

[redunderthebed]

The main attraction of optional preferential voting is that you don't throw your vote away when you vote for a candidate or party that has no chance of winning. The people in the US who voted for Ralph Nader a few years ago could be argued to have contributed to G.W.Bush's victory, even though they most likely would have preferred Al Gore to win if Nader didn't.

In Australia you can vote for a Greens candidate who has no chance of winning a seat. That would be your first choice, but since s/he didn't get enough votes to win, your vote gets reallocated to your second preference, which in this case would go to the Labor Party hopeful rather than the conservative cunt or the reactionary loony. You just number the voting card according to your preferences: "If my first choice, A, doesn't make it, I want my vote transferred to D. If he doesn't get over the line either, I want my vote to be allocated to F" and so on. I think preferential voting is way better than fist past the post.

Agreed however not a spot on the system ze germans and kiwis have.