Your input is helping shape the future of our democracy
The B.C. Government has introduced legislation to hold a referendum in the fall of 2018, which will ask British Columbians to decide whether B.C. should keep its current voting system (First Past the Post) or move to a system of Proportional Representation. Countries around the world use different voting systems to elect their representatives. How a voting system is designed influences how a society is governed.
From Nov. 23, 2017 to Feb. 28, 218, British Columbians participated in a public engagement by completing an online questionnaire, reading submissions from organizations, and learning about voting systems used here and elsewhere in the world.
Your input will help shape key elements of the referendum, including how the ballot should be designed, the question(s) it should contain, and whether organizations should receive public funding to campaign for their preferred voting system.
The input is being analyzed now and will inform a report prepared by the Attorney General with recommendations for the referendum. The report will be posted on this website and presented to Cabinet. Details will then be announced, including the referendum date, campaign period, campaign rules and ballot question(s).
Thank you for participating and helping to shape the referendum on how B.C. votes.
The Building Blocks of Voting Systems
This introduction will help you learn the basics of voting systems, and how your vote translates into how you are represented in B.C.’s Legislative Assembly. Once you’re done here, learn more about each of the voting systems described on this site.
The Building Blocks of Voting Systems
Voting systems determine how votes elect the people who represent you in the Legislative Assembly – the place where laws are made. Each voting system is different but all share some basic building blocks. Let’s look at some of those building blocks now.
Let’s start with candidates. These are the people who compete to represent you as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (or MLA). Most candidates represent political parties, while others do not and are called independents. Winning candidates become MLAs based on the results of the vote. Exactly how this works depends on what type of voting system is being used.
The next building block is the electoral district. Electoral districts are the geographic areas where you vote—sometimes they’re called ridings. The winning candidates in an election represent the people in that area. Electoral districts can be geographically small or large (even regional in size). Depending on the voting system, they might elect one representative or many.
Political parties are the next building block. A political party is a group of individuals who share common values and ideas about what government should be doing. They play a major role in elections by running political campaigns and endorsing candidates to represent them. Most of the candidates in an electoral district will be representing a political party.
That brings us to the ballot. That’s the piece of paper where you mark your vote when you’re in the voting booth. The ballot will look different depending on what type of voting system is in place. In some systems, you vote for a single candidate, or a single political party.
In other voting systems, you may vote for both a candidate and a party. In still others, you may vote for several candidates in the order of your preference. Depending on the voting system, there may be many candidates on the ballot or few.
Whatever voting system is used, every candidate who wins becomes an MLA and holds a seat in the Legislative Assembly. So, voting systems determine not only who becomes an MLA, but also how our governments are formed.
Another important concept is called ‘proportional representation’. This is the idea that the seats a political party wins in the Legislative Assembly should closely match the percentage of the total votes a political party receives across the entire province. In a proportional voting system, if a party’s candidates win 40% of the total number of votes cast, that party would win about 40% of the seats in the Legislative Assembly.
Some voting systems are designed specifically to give proportional results. They can do this in a variety of ways, as you’ll see by the descriptions of the different systems on this site. Other voting systems are not designed that way, and instead focus on other values, such as direct local representation by a single MLA in each electoral district.
Now that you’ve learned the basics, learn more about each of the voting systems described on this site.
The Building Blocks of Voting Systems
Voting systems determine how votes elect the people who represent you in the Legislative Assembly – the place where laws are made. Each voting system is different but all share some basic building blocks. Let’s look at some of those building blocks now.
An image of a marked ballot, with an arrow pointing to three people icons, one in colour and two in grey, with another arrow below pointing to an illustration of the BC legislature.
Let’s start with candidates. These are the people who compete to represent you as a Member of the Legislative Assembly (or MLA). Most candidates represent political parties, while others do not and are called independents. Winning candidates become MLAs based on the results of the vote. Exactly how this works depends on what type of voting system is being used.
An image with five icons meant to represent a candidate in the fictional Yellow Party, Pink Party, Purple Party, Bronze Party and Tan Party. Below the five icons is a single icon meant to represent an Independent candidate.
The next building block is the electoral district. Electoral districts are the geographic areas where you vote—sometimes they’re called ridings. The winning candidates in an election represent the people in that area. Electoral districts can be geographically small or large (even regional in size). Depending on the voting system, they might elect one representative or many.
An image of a generic Electoral District, with an arrow below that splits in two; one arrow pointing towards an icon of a single representative with the text ‘One Representative’ below, the other arrow pointing towards an icon of multiple representatives with the text ‘Many Representatives’.
Political parties are the next building block. A political party is a group of individuals who share common values and ideas about what government should be doing. They play a major role in elections by running political campaigns and endorsing candidates to represent them. Most of the candidates in an electoral district will be representing a political party.
An image with five squares; one each for the Yellow Party, the Pink Party, the Purple Party, the Bronze Party and the Tan Party. Each square contains four people icons.
That brings us to the ballot. That’s the piece of paper where you mark your vote when you’re in the voting booth. The ballot will look different depending on what type of voting system is in place. In some systems, you vote for a single candidate, or a single political party.
An image of a marked ballot with an arrow below that splits into two; one arrow pointing to an icon of a single person with the text ‘Single Candidate’ below, the other pointing to a square that contains four person icons with the text ‘Political Party’ below.
In other voting systems, you may vote for both a candidate and a party. In still others, you may vote for several candidates in the order of your preference. Depending on the voting system, there may be many candidates on the ballot or few.
An image of a ballot that contains six smaller boxes, five for the different political parties in the example and one for the independent candidate. The text ‘Candidate & Party’ is below the ballot. The five squares that represent the different parties each contain a space to vote for either Candidate A, Candidate B or the party itself. The square for the Independent Candidate is titled ‘Independent’, with a space below to add a vote to the independent candidate. In this example, a vote for Candidate A of the Yellow Party has been marked with an X.
An image of a ballot with the text ‘In Order of Preference’ below. The ballot contains a list with Candidate A from the Yellow Party marked with a ‘1’, Candidate B from the Yellow Party marked with a ‘2’, Candidate D from the Pink Party marked with a ‘3’ and the Independent Candidate marked with a 4. Candidate C from the Pink Party has deliberately been left blank.
Whatever voting system is used, every candidate who wins becomes an MLA and holds a seat in the Legislative Assembly. So, voting systems determine not only who becomes an MLA, but also how our governments are formed.
An image with a single person icon in front of an outline of an electoral district, and another image of multiple people from different parties in front of an outline of an electoral district pointing towards an illustration of the BC legislature.
Another important concept is called ‘proportional representation’. This is the idea that the seats a political party wins in the Legislative Assembly should closely match the percentage of the total votes a political party receives across the entire province. In a proportional voting system, if a party’s candidates win 40% of the total number of votes cast, that party would win about 40% of the seats in the Legislative Assembly.
‘Proportional Representation’ is displayed above a pie chart, showing a distribution of votes across the five parties. The Yellow Party has 40% of the votes. Below the pie chart is the text ‘40% of votes’ and an arrow pointing to 10 seats, 4 of which contain icons to represent candidates from the Yellow Party. Below the seats, the text ‘40% of seats’ is displayed.
Some voting systems are designed specifically to give proportional results. They can do this in a variety of ways, as you’ll see by the descriptions of the different systems on this site. Other voting systems are not designed that way, and instead focus on other values, such as direct local representation by a single MLA in each electoral district.
An image of 10 people icons in front of an outline of an electoral district. Four represent the Yellow Party, three represent the Pink Party, one represents the Purple Party, one represents the Bronze Party, and one represents the Tan Party.
Now that you’ve learned the basics, learn more about each of the voting systems described on this site.
Voting Systems
First Past the Post (FPTP) or Single Member Plurality (SMP)
The current voting system in British Columbia. A voting system in which the candidate who gets the most votes in an electoral district (even if it is not the majority of the votes) wins and represents that district in the legislature as its Member of the Legislative Assembly (MLA).
List Proportional Representation (List PR)
A voting system in which multiple MLAs are elected in large electoral districts (regional or provincewide) and the proportion of total votes received by each political party determines the share of seats it receives in the Legislative Assembly.
Mixed Member Proportional (MMP)
A voting system in which voters have one vote for their electoral district representative, and a separate vote for their preferred political party. A party’s overall share of seats in the Legislative Assembly is determined by its share of the vote for political parties.
Single Transferable Vote (STV)
A voting system in which multiple MLAs are elected in each electoral district and voters rank the candidates according to their preferences (1, 2, 3, etc.). Candidates must reach a vote threshold to be elected, and their votes may be transferred to their subsequent preferences (2nd, 3rd, etc.) in order to elect the candidates in that district.
Mixed Member Majoritarian (MMM)
A voting system very similar to Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) where voters have one vote for their electoral district representative, and a separate vote for the preferred political party. In Mixed Member Majoritarian, unlike MMP, the seats allocated for the political party do not compensate for the results of the electoral district vote – instead, those party seats are allocated proportionally only amongst themselves.
