When British Columbians go to the polls on May 17, they will be doing more than electing a new government. They will also be voting in a referendum asking them whether they are in favour of transforming the provincial electoral system. If the vote is 60 percent in favour, a new voting system will be in place for the next provincial election in 2009. If voters reject the new system, the current voting system will remain in place.

Background
Recognizing that there was growing discontent about the fairness of the "first-past-the-post" electoral system currently in place, the government of Premier Gordon Campbell convened the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform in January 2004. The Assembly, consisting of 158 members from electoral districts all over the province, studied the issues involved, held a series of public meetings and, in December 2004, issued its final report. In the report the Assembly recommended that the province adopt a new system of voting, the single transferable vote. (The Assembly dubbed it BC-STV.) It is that recommendation that electors are being asked to endorse in the May referendum. The referendum question will read: "Should British Columbia change to the BC-STV electoral system as recommended by the Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform? Yes/No"

What is the Single Transferable Vote?
At the moment, elections in BC (and everywhere else in Canada) take place using the "first-past-the-post", or plurality, system. When an election takes place, each voter casts a single vote and the winning candidate is the one receiving the largest number of votes. As a result, in constituencies where more than two candidates stand for election, the winner may gain less than a majority (50%) of the votes. In other words, he or she may be elected by a minority of the voters, though still winning more votes than any other candidate.

One of the perceived deficiencies of the plurality system is that entire governments may be elected by a minority of voters. This is what happened in British Columbia in the election of 1996 when the NDP won a majority of the seats in the legislature while winning fewer votes province-wide than the Liberals. As well, the plurality system does not allow for any representation from political parties that fail to elect any members, no matter how many votes they may have received. For example, in the 2001 election, almost 200,000 people voted for Green Party candidates. Yet that party did not win a single seat. Would the system be fairer if those 200,000 voters were represented somehow in the legislature? The Citizens' Assembly thought so.

After examing the issue, the Citizens' Assembly recommended the single transferable vote. The single transferable vote is a form of proportional representation. Proportional representation is intended to make election results correspond more closely to the number of votes cast. Whatever proportion of the popular vote a political party receives, be it 4% or 54%, it would receive a corresponding proportion of the seats in the legislature. This is the basic principle of proportional representation, though there are different ways of achieving it.

Under the BC-STV, voters would be given the opportunity to rank candidates in order of preference, marking a 1, 2, 3 and so on next to the names on the ballot. All constituencies would elect between two and seven members to the legislature. Candidates who received more than 50% of the votes would be elected, but if no candidate received 50% then second and third preferences might be calculated into the tally to find the winning candidates.

The Citizens' Assembly acknowledges that the STV would result in a higher incidence of minority or coalition governments. In the Assembly's view, this will cause political parties to work together more cooperatively and become more responsive to the wishes of voters.

Voters may familiarize themselves with the STV proposal by studying the final report of the Citizens' Assembly, copies of which have been delivered to every household in the province. Or you can visit the Assembly's website, www.citizensassembly.bc.ca.

Other online sources: www.fairvotecanada.org