Monday is municipal election day in Ontario. London is the first municipality in Canada to use ranked ballots. It’s confusing, even to candidates, some of whom are giving their supporters some bad – and self-defeating – advice.
It was confusing to me and I voiced the city’s official video about it!
Here’s how it works. Votes are counted for candidates A, B, C and D. If no one has 50% of the vote plus one, then the candidate with the lowest number of votes is eliminated. Let’s make that C. Then the SECOND choice candidates from those who voted for C are counted and added to the remaining candidates. If there’s still no 50% winner, the bottom vote-getter is out. Let’s make it B. Now we just have A and D. The ballots choosing B as the first choice are counted again – but only their second choice is used. And so on and lather, rinse and repeat until a winner is declared.
The mistake many candidates are making is they’re telling people to only vote for them. That’s foolish. They think they’re showing opposition to the new system but they’re really setting themselves up to lose. When voting goes to a second round, they won’t have any second-place votes and they’ll get eliminated in that round or the next. There’s a difference between disliking the process and using it to one’s advantage.
It’s a bit of an experiment but the way I see it, there’s more of a say for the voter. If the rest of the city doesn’t like my preferred candidate, at least I get to say who I’d like second-best. It might take a little longer but it just might prove to be a better system, if people can figure it out by the time the polling stations close.