Hong Kong elections: overconfident Beijing loyalist parties suffer a near-total rout

The example I have been giving for the last few years is North-East Fife, the seat that was held by former Lib Dem leader Menzies Campbell until his retirement in 2015.

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This also illustrates how unfair first past the post is.

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True, but it’s the system we have until we get rid of it.

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Somebody that is good at photoshop should modify the “guy looking over his shoulder at the new girl” meme but replace the faces of the guy with Xi, a bloodied and bruised Carrie Lam as his girlfriend and Tsai Ing-wen (president of Taiwan) as the girl walking past.

I actually used to not vote, I was convinced that it really didn’t matter because I’ve never lived in a riding that was remotely contested. But in June 2014* I downloaded data from Elections Canada and actually looked at how votes from one election carry on to the next. The most extreme example is the 2011 election in Labrador. In 2008 Todd Russel won Labrador for the Liberal party with 70% of the popular vote, the NDP came in second and Conservatives in third. In 2011 Peter Penashue of the Conservative Party beat Russell by 0.7% (79 votes). This was not a wave election or a change in government.

If anyone feels like voting is pointless, I’d say it’s a bit like wearing a seat belt. Sure it probably does nothing (in the Canada/UK election system and nearly the same extent in the US one), but you don’t know if this is the day that it’s very important.

* Thanks, my blog!

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I never regularly voted either but i did make sure to vote earlier this year in Houston (i had forgotten to update my voting registration since i don’t live there any more). I was very proud to see that the majority of people i voted for had won,including nearly all of the black female judges that were vying for positions.

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I see voting as being a bit like money.

It can’t bring me happiness, but it can prevent misery.

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Every voting system has it’s problems.
Personally, proportional voting makes me a bit nervous with the potential for cronyism, a disconnection of the people in a specific area and their representative, and parties encouraged to deliberately target the large voter blocs in limited regions as opposed to trying to find a broader level of support over a larger area.

So it boils down to what to optimize for, and what to live with.

That’s why we should change voting systems every 20-30 years.

(Or use random ballot, the ultimate voting system)

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