Question about the Alternative Vote

I know how the AV works, you rank candidates in order of preference. But, if I were to only to vote my favorite candidate as my first preference and not give a vote to any of the others, would that mean the candidate I voted has a better chance of winning, or would doing this actually hinder my preferred candidate?

Reply 1

democracyforum

4

not sure this is the right section

You just identified one of the main problems with AV - not everyone chooses more than one candidate.
choose one candidate
choose four
It's up to you.

to answer your question - yes, only voting for one candidate would help him/her the most.
voting for more than one, would put him/her at risk of winning.

if every voter of a given area, used just one choice, it would be a disaster for AV.

Michael Howard said the same thing here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mC65vDq47-E at 8:50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RLB2b6Bd2I

AV is a disaster for the conservative party and because it is flawed,
but a dream for the Lib Dems because they are the most agreeable, "normal" party

Original post by LukeyJB

I know how the AV works, you rank candidates in order of preference. But, if I were to only to vote my favorite candidate as my first preference and not give a vote to any of the others, would that mean the candidate I voted has a better chance of winning, or would doing this actually hinder my preferred candidate?

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

democracyforum

4

Original post by LukeyJB

I know how the AV works, you rank candidates in order of preference. But, if I were to only to vote my favorite candidate as my first preference and not give a vote to any of the others, would that mean the candidate I voted has a better chance of winning, or would doing this actually hinder my preferred candidate?

You can vote tactically under AV - here is how

Vote for the candidate you want as number 1. That's simple enough.

Then for number 2, vote for the person who is a THREAT to the runner up.

Not a threat to number 1 , who you want to win,
but a threat to the person who will come second. You want to reduce the number of votes that person gets.

AV is a dodgy, unpredictable system

Or simply just vote for one person

Question about the Alternative Vote

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