2. Replace WTAD with Better System
We secured power to change in phase 1. In phase 2, we implement the solution.
Replace WTAD with Improved System
Under our current "Winner-Take-All" rule, votes are thrown away on every phase.
What if we didn't throw votes in the trash? What if we create a pool for the party that stores would be wasted votes?
A Simple Fix: "Zero Waste Voting"
Let's imagine we keep the local races, but add two new, common-sense rules:
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Create a "Party Pool": If your candidate loses (or win too much) the local race, your vote isn't wasted. It goes into a big, national "pool" for your chosen party.
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Use Pooled Votes to Reflect Nationwide Support: This national pool of votes is used to give seats to that party's most popular candidates who didn't win their local race.
The Difference From Winner-Take-All
| Winner-Take-All (The Old Rule) | Zero Waste Voting (The New Rule) | |
|---|---|---|
| If Your Candidate Loses | Your vote is thrown away. | Your vote goes into the Party Pool and still helps. |
| If Your Candidate Wins | Surplus votes above the victory line is thrown away. | Your vote goes into the Party Pool and still helps. |
| The Result | A party with 1% of nationwide votes can get a 90% of the seats. | If a party gets 30% of votes nationwide, they get about 30% of the seats. Simple. |
"Zero Waste Voting" is "Proportional Representation"
You like the idea? This system has a formal name: Proportional Representation (PR).
Yes, I know the name is intimidating and feels foreign. However, in its core, the system is WTAD but with zero waste.
So when you hear the term "Proportional Representation," you can just think of it as WTAD with Zero Waste. You already understand it.