Apologies for the large swathes of quote - I wanted to make sure we all
know what we're talking about...
At 22:40 25/10/98 +1100, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>[AA]
>That until the nature of Australian electorates changes, Neither adopt
>national policy in favor optional preferential voting for both single
>member and multi-member electorates.
>
>and that support for such a policy be a requirement for membership.
>
>I'd propose this because (unless I've completely missed the point) this
>seems to me to be where we're coming from, whether anarcho-Stalinist or
>otherwise. Forcing voters to preference people they may wish to
>actively
>vote against seems to be somewhat undemocratic, and definitely is
>another
>tool which props up the two-party state.
>
>[AL]
>My guess is that you have indeed missed the point.
Please explain ;-)
>"Optional Preferential Voting" refers to the method used in some States
>where voters are not required to mark a preference number with respect
>to
>those candidates they do not choose to vote in favor of.
Which is essentially what you're calling CPV without the need to mark 3, 3,
3, 3 etc in every box, isn't it?
>There was no requirement to vote in favor of candidates that voters
>actively wish to vote against under the "Compulsory Preferential Voting"
>(CPV)
>system used in recent Commonwealth House of Representatives elections
>prior to 1998.
Yes. In that case, then perhaps my policy thingy needs to have some
reference to the 1998 changes then? Surely that's not "completely missing
the point", but rather a minor (but notable) omission in what I was
proposing? Alternatively, a re-wording to favour optional-preferential
over forcibly assigning preferences to htose you wish to vote against?
>Opinions differ among Neither supporters as to whether CPV or OPV is
>better. If you
>did really intend to make support for OPV as opposed to CPV a policy,
>you will need
>to put forward arguments in favor of it - the argument you have put
>forward appears
>to simply be a misunderstanding of the terms. Please read both the above
>items carefully
>before doing so.
I'd wish to support OPV over CPV as it appears to have the same end but be
easier and simpler to cast an OPV vote, meaning that (slightly?) less votes
end up informal. I would not wish people who support CPV excluded from
Neither.
I'm no expert, and am happy to give way to expert opinion, of course. So
if someone could exlpain the differences between OPV and CPV and why one's
necessarily better, I'd certainly be interested.
