Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre says the long list of names lining up to flood the ballot in his upcoming federal byelection amounts to a "blatant abuse" of democracy — and he wants the government to do something about it.
Eh, Im not conservative but I do think this is a valid bipartisan criticism.
If they pulled this stunt with a liberal leaning byelection Id consider it a greasy trick.
I have no issue with putting a cap on ballot names via some kind of reasonable system (IE if you get more than x candidates, then the top y candidates can only go on the ballot based on who has the most vouches or whatever)
That way you can avoid dozens and dozens of randos flooding the ballot to confuse people. It’s a valid hole to patch in our system that both sides should be on board with fixing in a reasonable way.
There is virtually no evidence that anyone who has voted in a riding with a “longest ballot” was ever confused.
Bruce Fanjoy won in the Carleton riding with 50.9% of the vote — a majority. The highest vote count for the any of the independent candidates was a whopping 57 votes — out of 86 060 total votes. That’s a whopping 0.06% of the vote.
In fact if you count only those candidates running either as an independent OR as “Not Affiliated” (so taking out anyone running for a party, including the Rhino Party and Marijuana Party candidates who did worse than a handful of the independent candidates), the longest ballot candidates IN TOTAL had a massive 0.99% of the vote. They didn’t even crack 1%.
Honestly, there are no electoral shenanigans to get worked up over here. The outcome was overwhelming, and Bruce Fanjoy (Liberal) didn’t seem to have any problems getting a plurality of votes to win.
Well, in theory it could be an issue if there were three John Smiths or something all running as independents, but to my knowledge even these extra-long ballots have not produced an example of that yet.
That issue can be solved by means other than saying, “Sorry, there’s already a John Smith on the list, try again next year.” Let’s focus on the real problems.
I do not think you know how democracy works, putting a cap on anything during an election (other than one vote for one person) is not letting the voice of the people to be heard. Putting a cap on how many forms someone can sign is wrong as well. I personally have never signed any longest ballot paper but I have signed multiple papers for people, I am guessing my place got put down as a willing signature giver as I signed a bunch of PPC papers for Saskatoon people until either the friends trying to get enough signatures ran out or I put up a pride flag. Not that I would ever vote for the PPC but because I believe in democracy, if people want to try their hand go for it.
Eh, Im not conservative but I do think this is a valid bipartisan criticism.
If they pulled this stunt with a liberal leaning byelection Id consider it a greasy trick.
I have no issue with putting a cap on ballot names via some kind of reasonable system (IE if you get more than x candidates, then the top y candidates can only go on the ballot based on who has the most vouches or whatever)
That way you can avoid dozens and dozens of randos flooding the ballot to confuse people. It’s a valid hole to patch in our system that both sides should be on board with fixing in a reasonable way.
There is virtually no evidence that anyone who has voted in a riding with a “longest ballot” was ever confused.
Bruce Fanjoy won in the Carleton riding with 50.9% of the vote — a majority. The highest vote count for the any of the independent candidates was a whopping 57 votes — out of 86 060 total votes. That’s a whopping 0.06% of the vote.
In fact if you count only those candidates running either as an independent OR as “Not Affiliated” (so taking out anyone running for a party, including the Rhino Party and Marijuana Party candidates who did worse than a handful of the independent candidates), the longest ballot candidates IN TOTAL had a massive 0.99% of the vote. They didn’t even crack 1%.
Honestly, there are no electoral shenanigans to get worked up over here. The outcome was overwhelming, and Bruce Fanjoy (Liberal) didn’t seem to have any problems getting a plurality of votes to win.
It’s like a built in skill question. If you can’t pick your candidate off a list with several names maybe you shouldn’t vote.
Well, in theory it could be an issue if there were three John Smiths or something all running as independents, but to my knowledge even these extra-long ballots have not produced an example of that yet.
Unlikely and here most people still have a middle name too.
That issue can be solved by means other than saying, “Sorry, there’s already a John Smith on the list, try again next year.” Let’s focus on the real problems.
I do not think you know how democracy works, putting a cap on anything during an election (other than one vote for one person) is not letting the voice of the people to be heard. Putting a cap on how many forms someone can sign is wrong as well. I personally have never signed any longest ballot paper but I have signed multiple papers for people, I am guessing my place got put down as a willing signature giver as I signed a bunch of PPC papers for Saskatoon people until either the friends trying to get enough signatures ran out or I put up a pride flag. Not that I would ever vote for the PPC but because I believe in democracy, if people want to try their hand go for it.