Is our voting system outdated?

[Valmont]

Loki's recent thread on women's right to vote got me thinking. (Not about women having the right to vote of course.)

Most Western nations have a first past the post / winner take it all system which means that each person gets a vote and the candidate who wins the most votes is elected.

It may seem fair and democratic but in reality it eventually leads to a two party system which is not representative of what people want.

These two parties will then try to absord the rest of the votes and create a rotating system where We always have the same parties elected in office.

A few notable examples:

Democrats and Republicans in the US

Labour and Conservatives in the UK

The Socialist party and The Republicans in France


People might argue that it's the most democratic way as each individual has an individual vote of equal value. Technically anyone has the power to influence the voting system but it rarely turns out so.

Let's take an example, the Simpsons decide to run for President of Springfield.



People go vote and the results come out as such:

Cat: 8 %

Marge: 18%

Lisa: 19%

Maggie: 14 %

Bart: 20%

Homer: 16%

Dog: 5%

Now in most systems (like the French one) there would be another election between Lisa and Bart and one of them would be elected (presumably Bart)

Statistically Bart only interested 20% of the population of Springfield but got elected nonetheless.

A few years later, there are new elections. People remember what happened and the voters of dog and cat realize their competitors do not stand a chance and they will vote for someone else. Cat and Dog drop out of the election and their voters spread among the candidates they feel "closer" to.

The new results come out as such:

Marge: 18%

Lisa: 26% (adding cat's voters)

Maggie: 14%

Bart: 25% (adding dog's voters)

Homer: 16%

This time Lisa is elected.

After a few elections Maggie comes to realize she'll never be elected. Her voters are undecided and split themselves between Bart and Lisa which keep getting elected to the detriment of Homer and Marge.

In the end Springfieldians keep reelecting people that originally only earned 20% percent of the votes and keep switching from one to the other.

What do you guys think? Do you think this first past the post system is the best one? Or should we opt for other solutions?

[Berahthraban]

You bring up a good point

[Myanthropologies]

The US voting system so flawed for sure, it is socially-constructed. We are either Democrats or Republicans, and everyone in between like myself is completely ignored, and so are the people who represent us during the elections. The objective is to force people to think either one way or the other, making it a lot easier for democrats and Republicans to get votes. This is the first election that I am old enough to vote in, and I have less than a month to decide whether I'm gonna vote trump or Johnson. I'm an independent, but closest to a libertarian. I tend to side with both Republicans and Democrats on certain things. I think things his election is going to be a wake up call to americans. We usually narrow it down to two shitty candidates every election since I was born, but this election, we narrowed it down to two extrmely shitty candidates and it is really going to wake everyone up about how flawed the two party system is. I expect something semi crazy to happen within the next four years that will wake everyone up.

[Poise n Pen]

You should simply rank the choices. #1 #2 etc. Then you can still vote your heart but put in the backup in case your lead vote is not going to make it.