So everyone is sharing this cartoon at the moment about how voting for minor parties as first preference doesnt split the vote for major parties, implying that if i preference greens over labor for example that im not going to hurt labors chances against the liberals by a split vote.
Surely this is wrong? Because assuming the greens do win a seat with my vote, then that seat goes to what could have been a labor seat, hence splitting the vote. The only way minor party voting wouldn't split the vote is if the minor party wins no seats and my second preference then becomes my first. So this implies eithef that
-greens win a seat, splitting Labors vote and hurting their chances of beating the libs in government
or
-greens don't win, so Labour will win that seat and there is no vote split
Theres no way i can concieve of voting in this way that doesn't detriment my major party vote unless either the minor party 1st preference loses, or that my vote would be doubled and both parties get it, which would contradict the idea that each person gets 1 vote.
Therefore, are these arguments that vote splitting Can't occur with preferential voting wrong? Sure, either way my vote wont be 'wasted' but i still believe vote splitting is a serious issue given my main priority is to vote the libs out rather than hope for a small few greens seats to represent me against the libs.
Not trying to make this post partisan, this applies to any major/minor party prioritisation.
Maybe i fucked up and am missing the point somewhere so please enlighten me
Facebook
Twitter
Google+
Mobile
