Two-tier democracy: Under FPTP, some 75,000 "super-voters" to decide
Oct. 10 outcome
Millions of other Ontario votes
relegated to secondary importance
September 26, 2007 Under Ontario's outdated voting system,
the outcome of next month's election will once again be decided by about
75,000 "super-voters", whose lucky location and vote-changeability mean
their votes count for a whole lot more than the other millions of Ontario
voters, says election expert Greg Morrow of democraticSPACE.
"One would think that in a democratic system, the votes of
all Ontario voters should count equally," says Morrow, who also works with
Ipsos Reid on election seat projections. "But in reality, under Ontario's
unrepresentative first-past-the-post voting system, only a small fraction of
votes end up deciding the outcome one way or another."
Based on past elections, an estimated 4.7 million Ontarians
will vote on Oct 10. In a recently-published online report, Morrow estimated
that only about 1.5% of voters will determine the outcome of the election (
http://democraticspace.com/blog/2007/09/15-of-voters-will-determine-election-outcome).
Under today's FPTP system, "since the government is decided by a series of
one-on-one riding battles, it will be determined by 5% of voters in the
closest 30% of the ridings."
"The new MMP system recommended by Ontario's Citizens
Assembly reverses this profoundly undemocratic imbalance between a handful
of 'super voters' and all the rest of us," said Rick Anderson, campaign
chair of Vote For MMP (www.VoteForMMP.ca). "Instead of today's FPTP system
wherein provincial election outcomes come down to a handful of voters in a
handful of ridings, MMP's new two-vote ballot system would mean every single
vote counts equally towards determining the crucial province-wide question
of who forms government."
Morrow's analysis is another convincing illustration of how
badly the current voting system warps the way we do politics. "Rather than
court all voters in all parts of the province, the undemocratic
first-past-the-post system encourages parties to focus on a tiny minority of
strategically-targeted voters," said Anderson. "A proportional voting system
such as MMP gives equal weight to all voters, meaning that parties need to
compete for votes in all parts of the province. Whether a vote is cast in
Timmins or Toronto, for party A or party B, in a swing riding or a safe one
- they will carry the same weight and value under MMP."
"This deeply changes the way parties compete for votes - and
how they govern when in power," said Anderson. "Under first-past-the-post,
parties know they can win overwhelming control of the legislature and
governing agenda with as little as 40 per cent of the votes. When parties
focus on swing ridings, other voters, other ridings, and entire regions
become a less-than-equal part of the picture when the cold hard calculus of
policy-making is applied."
"It's time to replace the two-tier democracy and 'super
voters' of our winner-take-all system, and modernize our democracy by
adopting MMP on October 10."
About Vote for MMP: Vote for MMP is a multi-partisan
citizens' campaign supporting the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting
system presented to Ontarians for adoption in the referendum on electoral
reform referendum on October 10. MMP was proposed by the Ontario Citizens'
Assembly on Electoral Reform, an independent body of 103 randomly chosen
Ontario voters. Assembly members were asked by the Ontario Legislature to
(a) determine whether Ontario needs a new voting system, and (b) if so to
recommend an improved system. The Assembly studied proportional electoral
systems used in 81 democracies around the world, and selected MMP as the
approach best-suited for Ontario. Vote for MMP is funded by donations from
citizens and organizations who agree with the Citizens' Assembly
recommendations, and believe it is time to strengthen democracy and
modernize Ontario's voting system that gives voters more choice, fairer
results and stronger representation.
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Media contacts:
Steve Withers, Media Coordinator, Vote For MMP Campaign Tel:
(519) 282-1078 e-mail: steve.withers@VoteForMMP.ca
Rick Anderson, Chair, Vote For MMP Campaign e-mail: rick@asci.ca
Website:
www.VoteForMMP.ca
