The city of London could be making Canadian political history for its 2018 municipal election, by tossing away the traditional first-past-the-post for the Ranked Ballot system.
With a ranked ballot system, voters would mark their first, second and third choice of candidates instead of just voting for one candidate. If no candidate wins a majority, the person with the fewest first-place votes is eliminated and their votes are redistributed, this continues until a majority can be found.
The city of London is hosting information sessions at a couple of locations around the city tonight for people to ask questions and give feedback about ranked voting.
“This is basically an education endeavour,” said Sarah Corman the Manager of Elections for the city of London. “We are hoping people can understand what ranked balloting is and that they can provide feedback to councillors for the next election.”
Though this system has not been implemented yet, the city has a deadline of May 1 to choose whether or not to go through with this new system. If the new system is approved, London would be one of the first major municipality’s in Canada to replace the first-past-the-post system.
