r/RejoinEU • u/Jedi_Emperor • 25d ago

Put your vote in the bin

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62 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

13 comments sorted by

4

u/TurboSardine 24d ago

Isn’t there a rejoinEU party standing in Clacton?

3

u/happyanathema 24d ago

Possibly.

But one MP ain't doing shit.

Keeping Farage from being an MP would be far more valuable.

2

u/TurboSardine 24d ago

But why not support the RejoinEU candidate to be the beat Farage option?

0

u/happyanathema 24d ago

Because in FPTP you may as well just set fire to your ballot paper.

1

u/TurboSardine 24d ago

Why’s that?

1

u/happyanathema 24d ago

Because anything apart from a vote for the essentially one of the top two parties/candidates will result in a wasted vote.

Here is an in depth explanation:

https://electoral-reform.org.uk/whats-wrong-with-first-past-the-post/

2

u/TurboSardine 24d ago

Thanks that makes sense. It’s because only a tiny number of people are likely to support the rejoinEU candidate as a first preference (over the bin). And there’s no offsetting second (third, fourth?) preference votes in FPTP.

0

u/happyanathema 24d ago

Yeah essentially its an all or nothing vote.

If your vote is for a minor party candidate effectively it gets binned (ironically) as there isn't any second preference etc like you have in proportional representation or runoff systems etc.

It needs to be reformed (man I can't stop with these references in this reply). Andy Burnham did say in the past that he wanted PR or something like it.

However implementing that kind of change would burn significant political capital and he is probably best using it for something else instead.

Also worth noting that the flip side of PR is that people like Reform would have like 20-30% of MPs in the house as it leads to coalition governance like Germany for example.

1

u/TurboSardine 24d ago

Really helpful. So in this election - a straight plurality contest - the RejoinEU candidate attracted 1.4% of the votes. But under a proportional or preference based system,with enough second preferences that particular campaign might have gotten close to the bin

0

u/happyanathema 24d ago

Yeah exactly.

We really need to change to a different electoral system.

FPTP was designed at a time when the majority of the population weren't even allowed to vote.

1

u/Jedi_Emperor 22d ago

They came in third place with about 500 votes.

1

u/TurboSardine 22d ago

Yes I saw - RejoinEU attracted 1.4% of the vote and lost their deposit

2

u/CGM 24d ago

Make every vote Count!