Voting Yes in May is the only real option.

On the 5th May the people of Britain will return to the polling booth for local elections. These elections will no doubt cripple the Liberal Democrats at a local level, still riding the wave of contempt from the public over Tuition Fees, the VAT rise and public sector cuts.

But all this is seemingly irrelevant to the online community, the big issue on the 5th May is the vote for the Alternative Vote. I know that I (and many other people) have spoken about this issue before, but I thought I'd try and put across the reasons why I feel AV should be the way to go and perhaps more importantly why and where the No 2 AV campaign is going wrong.

For anybody who hasn't read about AV before, here is a simply guide to how it works.

Why Vote Yes?


FPTP allows candidates to win their seat with only 3 votes in 10. AV would mean that candidates would need over 50%.

It encourages a stronger constituency link, MPs have to work hard to appeal to their constituents to make sure they get the higher percentage of votes.

It encourages moderated debates, extremists views are unlikely to be popular across the spectrum of a constituency.

AV isn't perfect, but it is a step in the right direction.


Why the No Campaign is wrong?


AV will cost £250m - Erm, how do I put this? .. Ah yes, this is a complete lie. AV will not cost £250m.
The referendum on AV will cost £82m. Let me just stress that point, the referendum will cost £82m, regardless if the Yes vote wins. So it will cost us £82m to keep FPTP if the No vote wins. The outcome is irrelevant to this cost. Strike one for No2Av. The rest of this "cost" comes from electronic voting machines, which will cost up to £130m. Guess what? Strike two. We don't need these machines. The rest of the money is made up in educating voters, but their estimates are on a totally different voting system. Strike three and this No2AV lie is out of here.

No2AV - This is how the "cost" of AV should be spent. Truly disgusting campaigning.

Next on the list of lies mis-truths - Voting Yes2AV will help the BNP. This is actually quite funny. Firstly because of course it is a lie. But secondly because the BNP are campaigning against AV. Their supporters are being encouraged to vote No2AV. 

Allowing voters to rank their preferences is apparently going to benefit the BNP more than any other party in the No2AV fantasy land. Voters can rank up to five candidates, but they don't have to, they can just vote for one candidate and one candidate only. Meaning only BNP supporters will rank them at all. But no, the No2AV see it differently.

I can imagine it now. A supporter of the Liberal Democrats walking into the voting booth and putting Lib Dem's as their first choice because they support the idea of immigration amnesty that was brought up in the 2010 Election only to decide that they'd like the BNP as their second choice because, you know what, I don't like immigrants here, they'd like to give them £50,000 to "get out of their country". Hmm, then again, maybe not.

AV is a confusing system. How many of you think ranking something 1-5 is confusing? It is an insult to the intelligence of the British public.

FPTP is a British tradition. So was slavery. *bangs head on wall*.

Yes2AV. Yes to fairer votes.

Hypocrisy in the House of Lords.

There are moments in politics that I find myself chuckling away when I read what is happening - today is such a day. (I am aware this is possibly the uncoolest statement made by a 19 year old)

Regardless, I'll continue. The debate on the Alternative Vote (AV) has been raging for a while now, the Liberal Democrats made it one of their four key policies in their manifesto and would have refused to join the Coalition without "a bankable" offer from the Tories on an AV referendum (public vote).

WHAT IS ALTERNATIVE VOTE

Under the AV system, voters rank candidates in their constituency in order of preference.

Anyone getting more than 50% of first-preference votes is elected.

If no-one gets 50% of votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and their backers' second choices allocated to those remaining.

This process continues until one candidate has at least 50% of all votes in that round.

BBC News

Why do the Lib Dem's want it so badly? AV is a more representative of people's votes, currently we use a First Past The Post (FPTP) system which means one candidate can win with less than 50% of the popular vote. Crucially for the Lib Dem's they feel the FPTP is hurting them, in 2010 they won 23% of the popular vote, but they didn't receive anywhere near 1 in 4 seats - closer to 1 in 10 in fact.

Vote Yes on May 5th

In May when the Coalition was formed, the Tories gave the Lib Dem's their assurance that a referendum would be held on AV. But it has been anything but easy since then. The House of Lords has refused to pass the bill as it stands and yesterday announced that they have given their support to the bill, only on the condition that 40% of the electorate votes on it. Meaning 4 in 10 people most vote (either way) on 5th May 2011.

Firstly, this makes the job of the No2AV campaigners unbelievably simple, if they can convince enough people to NOT vote at all, they'll "win". It doesn't matter if 39% of the electorate turn out and ALL vote yes. The AV bill still won't "be legitimate" and will count for nothing. So Yes2AV campaigners really have to step up their game, especially on the back of an announcement by YouGov that AV and FPTP are neck and neck in the polls.

Finally, lets get back to the title - hypocrisy. Yes, the hypocrites in the House of Lords have decided that the AV vote isn't safe for us mere mortals to have - but for them, it is fair game. A hereditary peer has sadly died and because he was important in the House of Lords, all 786 peers will have their chance to vote and rank in order their preference for a new peer to replace him.

One rule for one, but sadly not for all.

Yes to fairer votes. Yes to Av.