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Last revised: December 1, 1996

Electoral Politics 1996

Proportional Representation

by Al Liner

One of the biggest issues facing us is the lack of participation on the part of electorate. Our most recent primary election gives evidence of this. Less than 45% of registered voters actually turned out. One of the reasons for this lack of participation is that our government has become exclusive rather than inclusive. Voting alone is not very democratic. If you vote but have no representation to show for it nothing has been accomplished. Your vote has been wasted. People are feeling left out of the system. They feel it does not matter who wins the election the voters will lose, and they have little or no way effecting this system. I believe proportional representation begins to address this issue.

In a winner take all system the winner gets all of the representation while the rest get none. It does not matter if we have 2 parties or 3 or 20. In a proportional system every party or ideology that gets over a certain percent of the vote gets that percentage of representation.

If party A got 10% of the vote they would get 10% of the representation. In a district that had 10 representatives they would get 1 rep, and so on. Hence ideas that were once limited to being discussed around the living room table could now, more easily find their way to the discussion around the speakers podium at the state capital, or Washington D.C.

This is not a new concept. In fact most countries in world, and many local municipalities within our own country operate under such a system.

Proportional Representation (P.R.) opens up the system to represent diverse ideas and parties. A more open system encourages higher voter turnout, and greater representation. In India for example voter turnout this year was over 90%. An increase of over 60% in their first year using P.R. Similarly in New Zealand voter turnout was up nearly 50% it's first year using P.R..

P.R. is not the cure all of cure alls. It will not put an end to crime, or cure AIDS: or stop wars. But, if we have faith in the people, it is the first step in putting control of our country in their hands.

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