>Try http://www.voteforachange.co.uk

Why is the ERS’s Make My Vote Count campaign advocating AV+? The system is rubbish. STV all the way.

@2 ??? It doesn’t appear to be doing so. The letter to The Observer as quoted on the website says “Alongside the next general election there should be a binding referendum on whether to change to a new more proportional electoral system. This should be drawn up by a large jury of randomly selected citizens, given the time and information to deliberate on what voting system and other changes would make parliament more accountable to citizens.”

That would appear to leave the door open to STV.

The argument in favour of AV+ is that, whether it be the best answer or not, this is what old Roy Jenkins came up with in 1998, and there is no time to have another commission of inquiry, so this is what should be put to the referendum.

From http://www.makemyvotecount.org.uk/about.html

Our goal is to reform the House of Commons with a voting system that balances the principles of:

* Broad proportionality
* Stable government
* Extending voter choice
* Maintaining a constituency link.

These principles would be met by the AV+ voting system recommended by the Jenkins Commission.

Given that AV+, of all of those principles, only really meets that of stable government, I would rather wait a year for a general election in which time STV was put on the referendum rather than have a general election right now with AV+ on the referendum – I reckon a citizens’ commission or grand jury would take less than a year, in fact. That is the purpose of the Vote For A Change campaign, of which Make My Vote Count is one element.

So it is a minor quibble, but I for one think the massive redrawing of constituency boundaries and a top-up element that will further empower party elites over citizens at the ballot required by AV+, are not a price worth paying for an early general election.

Out of interest, what’s a good model for a national election by STV? I tend to think that AMS and AV+ don’t seem to be bad ideas for a compromise, and of the two, AV+ has the potential to be fairer as it does away with First Past The Post elections.