Keep Voting Simple

"The Iowa caucus debacle proved that a 21st century election requires 19th century technology." Paper and pencils. Still the best voting technology. LIKE and SHARE if you agree.

Another referendum and another province has said NO to proportional representation and YES to first past the post. Way to go PEI!

Massive win for First Past The Post in B.C.

REMINDER that tonight (Thursday, March 15th) 6:30PM PST is our telephone and online townhall and update on the BC Referendum with Bill Tieleman and Dimitri Pantazopoulos. Sign up at www.keepvotingsimple.ca/bc-townhall or participate on Facebook Live as we'll be streaming right here.

Foreign pressure groups shouldn't be participants in Canadian elections.

On Thursday, March 15th, 6:30PM PST Keep Voting Simple will hold a supporter briefing and telephone townhall about the B.C. Referendum on electoral system changes which the B.C government is planning for next fall. On the call, we will update you on what we know so far, and preview what we have planned. You will also have a chance to ask questions and provide feedback. Bill Tieleman and Dimitri Pantazolpoulos will lead the telephone townhall. Bill Tieleman is a veteran NDP st...rategist whose clients include unions and businesses in the resource and public sector. Tieleman led the "No BC STV" campaign that successfully rejected the single transferable vote system in the 2005 and 2009 referenda. Dimitri Pantazopoulos conducted public opinion research and managed direct voter contact in the 2013 and 2017 BC Liberal election campaigns. He has received national accolades for his research work. To sign up for the briefing click on the link below or visit http://keepvotingsimple.ca/bc-townhall/ At the time of the briefing, an automated system will call at the number you provided. It will subsequently join you to the discussion. Participation is simple and free. The briefing will be held at 6:30PM PST on Thursday, March 15th, 2018.

The NAACP in Memphis is against IRV (Ranked Ballots) stating, "After reviewing information and listening to presentations from supporters and those against IRV, we have determined it is not in the best interest of a city, which is majority people of color, to implement this new voting concept."

2018 is an important year in the fight to keep voting simple in Canadian politics. This is an important initiative in order stop those who want to make our voting system more complicated, time-consuming, and inaccessible. In the fall of 2018, British Columbia's NDP/Green coalition will hold a referendum, proposing to change the province's voting system to some form of proportional representation. This change in the voting system will result in fewer or no local representative...s and more control by backroom party officials. This fall the cities of Cambridge and Kingston, Ontario will also hold referendums on whether to change their voting system to a ranked ballot for their municipal elections. Ranked balloting or 'instant runoff vote' is a convoluted and expensive system that leads to more voter error and lower turnout. London, Ontario will use a ranked ballot for their upcoming municipal council election. This form of voting comes after city staff strongly recommended against it due to its high cost and voter confusion. It is Keep Voting Simple's mandate to contest these referendums as well as monitor the upcoming municipal election in London, Ontario. It is important that we highlight the many problems these systems pose to the election process and the quality of our democracy. By monitoring these changes and raising awareness to impacted voters, we are doing out part. However, we cannot fight these ill-fated experiments alone. We need your help. Can we count on you for a donation of $5 today to help us contest these vital referendums?

"In 2016, voters were given five choices, but this time it will simply be a chance to vote "yes" or "no" to the question "Should Prince Edward Island change its voting system to a mixed member proportional voting system?" A "No" vote would see no change in the way members are chosen for the 27 seats in the legislature, while a "yes" vote would see 18 members chosen in redrawn electoral districts and nine others chosen in province-wide ballots."

The BC NDP-Green Coalition has introduced legislation on electoral change, setting the stage for a referendum to be held before the end of November 2018. Unlike previous referendums, a super majority of 60% will not be required; rather, only a simple majority of 50% + 1 will be sufficient to transform BC’s electoral system. Voters will not be given a simple yes or no question, but instead will be presented with a list of proposed systems where each voter must rank their ...choices. This means that even if a plurality rejected electoral change on the first ballot, another electoral system may still prevail a phenomenon that happened in P.E.I. last year. Using an unfamiliar ranked ballot process for a referendum like this is an obvious attempt to confuse and manipulate voters. A referendum on an issue as important as electoral change should not use a system as untested and error-prone as ranked choice voting. Ranked ballots require computers to tabulate as they are too complex to be counted by hand, so the BC government will be forced to rush recklessly to even have the capacity to hold a referendum next year. Implementing such a system is far from easy. In June, the City Council of London, Ontario, used ranked choice ballots for a vote and a simple error caused the person who should have come in second to place sixth. Please LIKE and SHARE if you agree that a referendum on the future of BC's electoral system is not the time to be experimenting!

"After the lists were narrowed, Coun. Phil Squire didn’t hesitate to show his frustration. I just think it’s great that we could have been done and finished just after 6:30, we’re now here at 7:40 still debating about a ranked ballot system and how great it could work if we got it right, Squire said. I think it demeans us as a council, makes us look silly, and I just have to smile, that’s all I can do... Coun. Josh Morgan defended ranked ballots, saying the issue on Monda...y night wasn’t with the system, but how it was conducted. Morgan pointed out they had too many candidates for the number of people who were voting and they were inconsistent with their rules." If ranked choice voting doesn't work for 15 people and they can't be "consistent with their rules" how is it going to work in a city of hundreds of thousands of people? Our current electoral system is fine there is no reason to change it to something so complicated and error prone LIKE and SHARE if you agree!

Massive win for First Past The Post in B.C.

"But negotiations after the vote aren’t based on popular will, but on whether a party can prop up a government. More importantly, coalition governments make it difficult for voters to hold governments to account, as it becomes difficult for voters to clearly assign blame or credit. At the same time, voters are given limited options during elections and can only use their vote to punish or reward governments for their policy decisions."

"In fact, there was something else that those 15 dictators had in common.... They each rose to power in a country that used PR to elect its legislature. No democracy that used first past the post fell to dictatorship during the period."

ICYMI: Keep Voting Simple B.C. Referendum Townhall March 15th, 2018 with Bill Tieleman & Dimitri Pantazopoulos moderated by Richard Ciano.