British Columbians Reject STV Again
13 May 2009 | Referendum
British Columbians have voted down a change in the electoral system to the Single Transferable Vote for the second time in 4 years. STV received the support of less than 40% of British Columbians who cast their vote in the electoral reform referendum held in connection with the 2009 General Election yesterday.
The final results of the electoral reform referendum are available on the Elections BC website.
STV required at least 60% of all votes cast in B.C., and a majority of the votes cast in at least 51 of the 85 electoral districts in order to be binding on the Government.
Looking back at the results of the referendum, it seems likely that the issue of electoral reform in British Columbia has run its course. Voter turnout declined in the 2005 and 2009 elections, both of which were combined with a binding referendum on electoral reform. Apparently, the promise of change to our electoral system was not enough to convince people to come out and vote.
While electoral reform has been proposed as a solution to the problem of decreasing voter turnout, I think that it is fair to say that the results of the referendum indicate that the cause of this problem lies elsewhere than in the electoral system.