someone explain AV to me please! before tomorrow!

[ThatVikRinA22]

i am in danger of simply not voting because i have no idea about any of it - i dont understand it!

what is AV?

why would it be better than the current system?

my vote never counts anyway - i voted labour! pah!

I found the wikipedia about it pretty useful.

I'm Australian so know it's nothing to fear. In fact, if you like voting (like I do) it's pretty fun cos you get to decide who you want to go last, as well as first.

Basically if no-one gets 50% whoever came last gets scratched off. The people who voted for them then get their second preference counted instead. It can reduce people feeling like they have to vote for the major parties or else their votes will be wasted.

It also means I always protest vote (for greens) but put labor second (so the vote goes to them in the end.

Initially I thought about voting against it, as I don't necessarily think endless coalition governments are a good thing - I like strong government with a strong upper house to scrutinise. (What I really want is a reform of the House of Lords).

But in the end it's not a massive change so it looks like it won't influence results to a huge degree so coalition governments will probably continue to be rare.

I'm voting for it.

I don't think it'll get through though.

I quite enjoyed this explanation: (give it a chance, it does actually explain AV quite well)