Ranked voting could be a game changer

Jeff Green | Jun 04, 2015

Municipalities in Ontario will soon have the option to switch voting systems and adopt ranked voting. The impact of this on local municipal elections would likely be negligible, but if the system is applied to provincial or federal elections it would be a big deal indeed.

Ranked voting is not particularly complicated, and unlike other proposed voting reforms it would not change the way legislatures or parliaments are made up. The ridings would remain intact, and voters would be electing local MP's or MPP's just as they do now. The only difference would be that instead of marking an x next to the name of one candidate, voters would rank the candidates. Their favourite would get a 1, second favourite a 2, and so on.

When it came to counting, on the first count only the number 1's would be used, yielding a result that is identical to the final results in our current system. But then, if none of the candidates have received 50% of the popular in what would in effect be a first ballot, the least popular candidate is dropped off the ballot and those voters who chose that candidate have their number 2 vote counted in a second ballot. If the second ballot does not yield over 50% for one candidate, the least popular candidate in the second ballot is dropped off, and so on. Eventually one candidate will have 50% of the votes and they will be declared the winner. The counting will all be done instantly by computer, so there should be no delay involved.

What all this means n practical terms is that vote splitting will cease to be an issue in federal and provincial elections. It is possible for parties to form majority governments with as little as 35% public support in our current system. The ranked system will ensure that, at least in each riding election, the winner will have a measure of support from a majority of the electorate.

In a riding such as the new Lanark-Frontenac-North Kingston riding, which, based on voting patterns the last time around, could easily yield a 50% plus result for Scott Reid of the Conservative Party, there would be no difference. Reid received 57% of the vote in Lanark-Frontenac-Lennox and Addington last time around.

In the last election, Reid had a 37% lead over the second place candidate, from the NDP. Given that, the chances of him losing this coming election, even with a changed riding and perhaps a less popular party behind him, are minimal.

However, under a ranked voting system, under a circumstance where there was a concerted anyone but Harper sentiment among a large part of the electorate, it would be conceivable that his vote tally could drop enough to turn the election into a real contest. It would be unlikely that Scott Reid would lose if he polled anything more than 45% of the first ballot votes. This is not likely, but a drop to 45% is more likely than a drop to 35%.

But beyond the still unlikely possibility that ranked voting would change the results in this safe riding, it would still fundamentally alter the local campign.

In at the campaign that is developing in the new Lanark – Frontenac - North Kingston riding right now, the Liberal and NDP candidates are already saying that voters who oppose the Conservatives should vote for them.

Not only are Philippe Archambault (Liberal) and John Fenick (NDP) saying they are the best candidate from the party with the best platform, not only are they attacking the platforms of the other parties, they are also saying to the non-conservative voting base in the riding, don't waste your vote on the other guy, only I can challenge Scott Reid.

This entire aspect of campaigning further poisons campaigns that are already mired in negativity.

We are being asked to 'hold out nose' and vote for one party even if they are not the one we really support, just to stop a third party from winning. Ranked voting would eliminate at least this one problem in our democracy, and would give more legitimacy to the governments that end up taking power in Ottawa and Toronto.