The Alternative Vote

[Dr Lobster*]

i voted yes to av in the end. big turn out tonight, biggest i've ever seen actually.

but there are a few local issues going on so i'm hoping a few tory councillors get the boot too.

[Alexia]

Yes to AV, plus two predictable votes for my party of choice. (one constituency, one regional). However as I walked out of the polling station I felt a twinge of regret at not trying something different and voting for the Greens on the regional list, considering all the walking I'm doing, my carbon footprint must be smaller than ever.

[Lorns]

All done. Hope i can stay awake to see the results coming in. I did vote to attend Dimblebots party tonight. So i better get 40 winks in soon, so i'm bright eyed and bushy tailed for the dimblet do on f/b.

I voted yes to AV btw.

[Chie]

I voted Lib Dems in the local election.

I've kind of warmed to them in the last year, and I just felt like voting for someone different for a change really.

Hopefully AV will get a substantial quantity of yes votes to demonstrate that people are dissatisfied with FPTP but not quite enough to actually tip it over the 50% threshold. In my opinion, this will increase the likelihood of a referendum on PR being held in the future.

[madmusician]

Voted "yes" and for the Lib Dem local candidate (just the one for our ward), who also happens to be the mayor. She's done an excellent job and is very nice (I've met her a couple of times) and really deserves to stay in. (Incidentally, this is for my "home" constituency in Ipswich (I did a postal vote in the Easter holidays) rather than my "work" address in Cheltenham).

I suppose I should expect it, working in an independent school, but many members of my colleagues are very much on the "no" brigade, almost violently so, which I found a bit disappointing (including my boss telling me this morning "you did WHAT?!" when discussing the election), but there we are. I've got to be honest and say that I expect a win for FPTP, but who knows what result we'll see. Will there be an exit poll for the referendum (he asks ignorantly)?

[Jamesypoo]

Voted yes and for the lib dems in the parish. It was either that or the tories...

[Jake]

I voted Yes, not because I had particularly strong views on the matter, I just think the whole system could do with a bit of a shake up, even if we ended up reverting to FPTP in a few years time.
I'm expecting the No votes to win by quite a margin though.

[Lorns]

Is it 10pm the polling stations close tonight?

[Philip]

Is it 10pm the polling stations close tonight?

Yep, just visited http://www.no2av.org/ and a big banner telling me so appeared.

[Finn]

AV seems to me to be a variant of how the X Factor voting works.

Week 1: 5 contestants, 1 eliminated

Week 2: 4 contestants, people who voted for last week's eliminated contestant vote for somebody else

and so on until you're down to one. In AV it continues until somebody has over 50% of the votes.

Is it not unfair that the people who voted for the eliminated contestant in the first week get a chance in subsequent weeks to vote for the winner? I think they should have their phone lines cut off.

Obviously... these are *inferior* votes.

[Jenny]

AV seems to me to be a variant of how the X Factor voting works.

Week 1: 5 contestants, 1 eliminated

Week 2: 4 contestants, people who voted for last week's eliminated contestant vote for somebody else

and so on until you're down to one. In AV it continues until somebody has over 50% of the votes.

Indeed, I've seen that comparison made elsewhere:
http://www.ukgameshows.com/ukgs/Weaver% ... 2011-05-01