Students at Queen’s University Belfast were signing up to the Yes! campaign. You too can join them in changing democracy in the UK in May. Continue reading joining the students saying Yes! to Fairer Votes
There are many reasons being given in many places across the internet and print media why the British voter should not be voting Yes in the Referendum on the Voting System for the members of the House of Commons. However, one of them today caught my eye. On the Telegraph website, Daniel Hannan, has stated that AV IS EXPENSIVE Under AV we won’t be able to count ballot papers by hand on election night if we want a quick, decisive election result. Local councils will have to purchase electronic counting machines that are very expensive and prone to malfunction. However, … Continue reading Expensive counting machines necessary: bunkum!
The most ambitious voter contact programme in British political history will be getting off the ground this weekend. The first wave of a total of 50 phonebanks will be open in cities across the United Kingdom. The cause ? The campaign for Yes to Fairer Votes for the Referendum on May 5th on the voting system used for Westminster elections. 140,000 already signed up Saturday 4th December will go down in history as the day it started. Already 140,000 people have signed up to help the campaign. I am proud to be one of them. This campaign truly is one from … Continue reading It’s a small change – but it will make a big difference
…but local campaigners are doing just that this Saturday The result in the General Election in Fermanagh & South Tyrone (FST) could hardly have been closer. Both Michelle Gildernew (Sinn Féin) and Rodney Connor (Independent) got 45.5% of the vote back in May. With 4 votes between them the result was taken to a costly electoral court. Would a vote using the Alternative Vote (AV) have made the result any clearer? Would it have made a difference? Stephen Glenn, Northern Ireland Organiser, and the Yes to Fairer Votes team will be running a re-run* of the FST parliamentary election by … Continue reading Court may not have ordered a re-run…
As a child I learnt to paint by numbers, the Electoral Reform Society appears to have bodged by numbers. As some of you may know that I have been helping with the Yes to Fairer Votes campaign in Northern Ireland. We have an event this Saturday in Enniskillen where we are planning to have a sample of voters to ‘re-run the Westminster election in Fermanagh & South Tyrone’. In order to prepare the ballot papers for Saturday, I went to the Electoral Reform Society‘s website to find out what they would recommend a ballot paper to look like when using … Continue reading ERS bodges by numbers
We live in a democracy. Nigel Dodds MP was elected in an election earlier in May to represent the people of North Belfast in the Parliament of the United Kingdom in Westminster. We may assume therefore that Mr Dodds received a majority of the votes cast. Yes? Not under the system used for Westminster elections at the moment. Let’s look at the figures… Read the rest of the article here. UPDATE: Stephen Glenn has just asked First Past What Post? Continue reading blogged elsewhere: when 40% equals the winner
Gyronny Herald 