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Blogs by Rolf Richardson
Crunching the Numbers 10/18/2019 1:09:58 AM
Two countries, Israel and Britain, are currently in political turmoil, so, abacus at the ready, let's crunch some numbers.
Britain, like the USA, operates a 'winner takes all' system in single member constituencies. This can easily lead to the 'wrong' party winning. best example in recent years being America's last presidential race, where Clinton got nearly 3 million votes more than Trump, but lost 227-304 in the electoral college.
To ensure that governments more accurately reflect votes cast, most countries operate some form of PR (Proportional Representation), which generally works well, as long as it is not taken to extremes. But this is exactly what Israel has done by putting all the country's votes into one big box, leading to a plethora of parties and no clear winner; there have been two elections already this year and the state of Israel is almost ungovernable.
The middle ground between these extremes is well tested, producing results that are both fair and practical. If anyone wants more details, I'll be happy to oblige. The bottom line is that the way you vote is less important than how your vote is counted. How they crunch the numbers.
