If you hate how we vote in Ontario, try this [Toronto Star, Bob Hepburn]

If you hate how we vote in Ontario, try this [Toronto Star, Bob Hepburn]

Are you fed up with thinking your vote never counts or your party never wins as many seats as you think it deserves?

If you do, then you’re not alone because that’s how many Ontario voters feel as they prepare to cast their ballots in the Oct. 6 election.

For decades, critics of Ontario’s first-past-the-post electoral system, in which the candidate receiving the most votes wins the riding, have complained that it shuts out small parties, hurts voter turnout and generally is an offence against modern democracy.

At last, these critics will get a chance to see just how an election outcome might actually unfold if Ontario used a different voting system.

To do this, Ontario residents are being asked to take part in a unique experiment in democracy by going to a website (threeontariovotes.ca), selecting their riding and then voting three ways: the current system, an alternative vote method now used in Australia and proportional representation used in the Netherlands.  --->>>

See also:  CBC - Virtual election lets Ontarians 'vote' under different rules