A Simple Guide to Electoral Systems

Alt text: Infographic titled "A Simple Guide to Electoral Systems" with a light blue background. At the top, a highlighted box states: "In a healthy democracy, citizens are deserving of and entitled to representation in government. Only proportional representation can dependably get you there."

The content is organized in two main columns. The left column labeled "Winner-Take-All Systems 🚫" (in red) describes First-Past-The-Post (FPTP) used in Canada/USA where the candidate with most votes wins but many votes don't elect anyone, and Instant-Runoff Voting (IRV) which uses ranked ballots but still wastes votes.

The right column labeled "Proportional Representation ✓" (in green) describes Mixed-Member Proportional (MMP) used in Germany/New Zealand where voters cast ballots for both local candidates and parties, and Single Transferable Vote (STV) used in Ireland which uses ranked ballots in multi-member districts. Both proportional systems ensure the percentage of votes equals percentage of seats.

A blue band across the middle highlights "Systems using Ranked Ballots: IRV and STV."

The bottom contains three gray boxes stating: "Which electoral system is best? If you care about democracy, proportional representation is the way to go," "Which political parties support proportional representation? Only Green🟢/NDP🟧/RPC🟨 consistently support proportional representation," and "Share this with a pro-democracy friend!"

The content is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.

List of parties that support proportional representation:

Also see: Simple things you can do right now, to grow the proportional representation movement—so we never have to vote for the lesser of the evils, have a two party system, "split the vote", or strategic vote.

Fairvote Canada @lemmy.ca

AlolanVulpix @lemmy.ca

2mo ago

A Colourful Update to: A Simple Guide to Electoral Systems

28 comments

I quickly drafted up this infographic, feel free to provide feedback!

I think we should include the ⚜️bloc and the 🐮animal protection party (aapc as well)
- Thanks for your feedback!
  Similar to a commenter before, there are many political parties, i just selected a few.
  It would personally take too much ongoing effort to encompass all details, and it gets most points across.
  And since the infographic is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0, you have the ability to take it and alter under a compatible license.

Do they have a list of media material that can be printed on A4, like flyers?
- Almost certainly, they have tabling booths with many print-outs. Here is a link to their Media Kit.
  Also see: Simple things you can do right now, to grow the proportional representation movement—so we never have to vote for the lesser of the evils, have a two party system, "split the vote", or strategic vote.
  If you want higher quality images, message me directly!

fairvote.ca needs to put bluesky links on their website! It appears they're using the Mastodon bridge already which is nice to see.
- Fair Vote Canada, is pretty much all volunteer run. So they are very resource constrained!

Something that I think is frequently overlooked is approval voting! Why have a single transferable vote when a voter would be happy with more than one candidate?
- Thanks for your feedback!
  There are many kinds of electoral systems, but in this space limited format, I only selected the ones most commonly discussed.
  Unless you're referring to multiwinner approval voting, I also don't see the benefits of approval voting over STV, as approval voting is winner take all.
  If you are referring to multiwinner approval voting, then STV would still be superior, as it forces voters to consider which candidates are more preferred.
  And since the infographic is licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0, you have the ability to take it and alter under a compatible license.

Also the ⚙️Communist Party of Canada supports MMP
- Do you have a source for that?
  
  It’s under Make Every Vote Count
  https://communist-party.ca/platform-a-peoples-alternative/

The red bar sinister and green checkmark smell of “telling you what to think”. Comes off like a cheap chinese product banner image on Amazon.
- The red bar sinister and green checkmark smell of “telling you what to think”.
  Perhaps, but are you suggesting we should not fight for a healthy democracy?
  (and yes, a healthy democracy requires that every vote counts, as it would in proportional representation electoral systems)
  Comes off like a cheap chinese product banner image on Amazon.
  Haha. Yup, it's ugly, but maybe someone else can do something better with it, it's licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA-4.0.
  
  Just curious, what part of my comment led you to reply with “are you suggesting we should not fight for a healthy democracy”?
  Also, encouraging liberal voters to vote for a fringe party with less than 3% of the vote, like the Green Party, leads to the right-wing party winning.
  “Vote Green Party” is a sure way to see national outcomes even further away from your ideals.

28 comments