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Delegate’s Coup Poll Shows Benefits of First-Past-the-Post Voting
Delegate Griffindor recently concluded a poll about whether to stage a coup d’état in the region. After five days of voting, the ‘no’ option in the poll opposing a coup earned a plurality of popular support, defeating its closest ‘yes’ challenger by over eleven percentage points. The result was widely hailed as a triumph for democracy in the region, and it appears that the incumbent Delegate has accepted the results and has not taken steps to overthrow the Coalition.
In the aftermath of the vote, proponents of first-past-the-post voting, also known as first-preference plurality or simply plurality voting, touted the victory of the ‘no’ vote as an example of the benefits offered by first-past-the-post voting. “Today is a victory not only for the Coalition but also for first-past-the-post voting,” one political operative told The SPIN Doctor. “The Coalition enjoys support among a clear plurality of South Pacificans, and this result demonstrates in no uncertain terms that this plurality knows best what the South Pacific needs.”
Critics of the result, however, noted that two-thirds of poll respondents voted for one of the eleven ‘yes’ options in the poll in favor of a coup. They reiterated long-standing concerns that first-past-the-post voting bears greater susceptibility to vote-splitting, where multiple similar options can divide voters and allow an option without majority support to win.
However, first-past-the-post proponents argued that the results of this referendum did not exhibit the spoiler effect, because the ‘Yes’, ‘Yes.’, ‘Yes!’, and ‘Yes?’ options were so similar that they were practically the same option and should not be counted as separate options. “This was effectively a two-option poll, and two-option polls are not susceptible to vote splitting,” the political operative said. “In fact, there were multiple options that were identically named, so really, they’re the same option and hardly split the vote.”
Meanwhile, Delegate Griffindor was reportedly overheard in the Government Island Public Library reading a book about electoral systems and muttering about how he “should’ve listened to those nerds” who had opposed first-past-the-post voting.