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Community Forums => The Lounge => Topic started by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 04:50:38 PM



Title: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 04:50:38 PM
The news are all potty about hung parliament scenarios at the moment. Who finishes where in the popular vote seems to be very relevant when it comes to how much sway they'll have in the negotiations over who governs.
 
Also, it would be hard to find someone who would disagree that the size of an individual MPs majority is certainly a factor in how much actual power they yield.

So this leads me to the question exactly how wasted is a "wasted" vote?


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 04:53:56 PM
I like that the general election is made up of 650 little elections. My geeky friends and I can get the beers in, stay up all night and watch the results come in.
How much worse is a sporting event when you already know who wins? How much worse still if you also know the exact score?

Polling is an impressive science these days, the level of sophistication by which they select their representative sample gets higher and higher so that their margin of error gets lower and lower. While the polling on a national level might be science, the projected #of seats each party will win is really just educated guesswork still.

The great irony for me is that in all likelyhood I'm about to cast one of these wasted ballots and am more enthusiastic about doing so than if I was going to vote under a fully proportional system. How excited can you really get about voting in an election when you can read a newspaper before you go in the booth to see who won and by how much?

Jeremy Vine on the beebs election coverage will be happy to wave his hands and tell you that anything can happen. His swingometer may be a load of shite but the man ain't lying. The happenings and goings on in 650 different locales really do make a difference. Surely that's democracy?

That we're using a system which means the BNP can't get 10% of the seats in the House of Commons just because Griffin tells Paxman on Newsnight that they support the death penalty for paedophiles, that's really just a bonus.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: kinboshi on April 27, 2010, 05:06:30 PM
I'm being told that my constituency is a marginal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b82.stm

It looks pretty much like a two-horse race between Labour and Conservative.  Would a vote for another party here be a 'wasted' vote and should I be thinking about just voting for one of those two?


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 05:11:50 PM

I'm being told that my constituency is a marginal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b82.stm

It looks pretty much like a two-horse race between Labour and Conservative.  Would a vote for another party here be a 'wasted' vote and should I be thinking about just voting for one of those two?


Was saying on facebook there that I'm not a fan of tactical voting.

I'm going for strategic voting instead. The strategy being decide which party best represents your views and vote for them.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: kinboshi on April 27, 2010, 05:23:11 PM

I'm being told that my constituency is a marginal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b82.stm

It looks pretty much like a two-horse race between Labour and Conservative.  Would a vote for another party here be a 'wasted' vote and should I be thinking about just voting for one of those two?


Was saying on facebook there that I'm not a fan of tactical voting.

I'm going for strategic voting instead. The strategy being decide which party best represents your views and vote for them.

Even if it means your vote goes to a party that seems to have no chance of winning in your constituency?  Is that not a flawed strategy?  Would a tactical vote towards the better of the two candidates/parties not make more sense - or at least a vote against the party who is further from your 'ideal'?

So instead of voting for the party who best represents my views, I could instead vote tactically to try to prevent a party who least represents my views winning the seat.  I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 

;carlocitrone;


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: redsimon on April 27, 2010, 05:33:11 PM

I'm being told that my constituency is a marginal.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/election2010/results/constituency/b82.stm

It looks pretty much like a two-horse race between Labour and Conservative.  Would a vote for another party here be a 'wasted' vote and should I be thinking about just voting for one of those two?


Was saying on facebook there that I'm not a fan of tactical voting.

I'm going for strategic voting instead. The strategy being decide which party best represents your views and vote for them.

Even if it means your vote goes to a party that seems to have no chance of winning in your constituency?  Is that not a flawed strategy?  Would a tactical vote towards the better of the two candidates/parties not make more sense - or at least a vote against the party who is further from your 'ideal'?

So instead of voting for the party who best represents my views, I could instead vote tactically to try to prevent a party who least represents my views winning the seat.  I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 

;carlocitrone;

At least you aren't in a safe seat. Nottingham North is living proof that you can put a red rosette on a donkey and it gets over 50% of the vote. Wasted vote voting for him or anyone else I guess? Got my postal voting form today, might just not bother...


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 05:37:42 PM

 I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 


Wherever you end up voting, make sure you do vote.

After all, it's an important election this year - it's your chance to have your say on who the candidates in 2015 are.  ;)


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: TightEnd on April 27, 2010, 05:42:13 PM

 I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 


Wherever you end up voting, make sure you do vote.

After all, it's an important election this year - it's your chance to have your say on who the candidates in 2015 October 2010 are.  ;)

see above


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: EvilPie on April 27, 2010, 05:42:56 PM

 I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 


Wherever you end up voting, make sure you do vote.

After all, it's an important election this year - it's your chance to have your say on who the candidates in 2015 are.  ;)

Piss off back to Tamworth and vote there imo.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: kinboshi on April 27, 2010, 05:53:22 PM

 I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 


Wherever you end up voting, make sure you do vote.

After all, it's an important election this year - it's your chance to have your say on who the candidates in 2015 are.  ;)

Oh, I'll definitely be voting.  Just not sure for which candidate yet.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 06:00:10 PM

Even if it means your vote goes to a party that seems to have no chance of winning in your constituency?  Is that not a flawed strategy?



I'm see the semantics of the words tactics and strategy in the chess sense.

A tactic has a definte gain in mind and is usually a short term thing.
Strategy is more to do with positional considerations and the gain you hope to get from it might be harder to define or might not be applicable in all continginies. It is typically a long term thing.
 
I'm not too sure if it's bad strategy or bad tactics on my part (as an opponent of proportional represntation) to try to convince you to vote libdem again. :)


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 06:02:35 PM

 I'm actually currently unsure how to vote come the election. 


Wherever you end up voting, make sure you do vote.

After all, it's an important election this year - it's your chance to have your say on who the candidates in 2015 October 2010 are.  ;)

see above

fair point!


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: kinboshi on April 27, 2010, 06:05:22 PM

Even if it means your vote goes to a party that seems to have no chance of winning in your constituency?  Is that not a flawed strategy?



I'm see the semantics of the words tactics and strategy in the chess sense.

A tactic has a definte gain in mind and is usually a short term thing.
Strategy is more to do with positional considerations and the gain you hope to get from it might be harder to define or might not be applicable in all continginies. It is typically a long term thing.
 
I'm not too sure if it's bad strategy or bad tactics on my part (as an opponent of proportional represntation) to try to convince you to vote libdem again. :)

Vote Lib Dem again?  Interesting assumption.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 06:09:48 PM

Even if it means your vote goes to a party that seems to have no chance of winning in your constituency?  Is that not a flawed strategy?



I'm see the semantics of the words tactics and strategy in the chess sense.

A tactic has a definte gain in mind and is usually a short term thing.
Strategy is more to do with positional considerations and the gain you hope to get from it might be harder to define or might not be applicable in all continginies. It is typically a long term thing.
 
I'm not too sure if it's bad strategy or bad tactics on my part (as an opponent of proportional represntation) to try to convince you to vote libdem again. :)

Vote Lib Dem again?  Interesting assumption.

Looked at the link you posted and the other two options were UKIP and BNP.

My assumption was not so much that you were a libdem man, rather I made two assumptions, the first being that you weren't a UKIP or BNP man, and the second being that the link you posted listed all the candidates standing in your constituency.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 06:13:10 PM
I could be wrong, you could be like me.

I'm lefty leaning but I tend to vote more right wing because the last thing I want is someone like me in charge.  :D


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: kinboshi on April 27, 2010, 06:17:16 PM

Even if it means your vote goes to a party that seems to have no chance of winning in your constituency?  Is that not a flawed strategy?



I'm see the semantics of the words tactics and strategy in the chess sense.

A tactic has a definte gain in mind and is usually a short term thing.
Strategy is more to do with positional considerations and the gain you hope to get from it might be harder to define or might not be applicable in all continginies. It is typically a long term thing.
 
I'm not too sure if it's bad strategy or bad tactics on my part (as an opponent of proportional represntation) to try to convince you to vote libdem again. :)

Vote Lib Dem again?  Interesting assumption.

Looked at the link you posted and the other two options were UKIP and BNP.

My assumption was not so much that you were a libdem man, rather I made two assumptions, the first being that you weren't a UKIP or BNP man, and the second being that the link you posted listed all the candidates standing in your constituency.

That doesn't tell you who I voted for last time though, even if your assumptions there are correct.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 27, 2010, 06:31:28 PM
You've made an assumption yourself there...

Although it is a horribly ambiguous sentence on my part. One could equally take from it that I'm stating that not only did you physical vote for the LibDems last election, but that you did so on my urging.

Might need to keep this to pm, I'm getting too dull, analyzing sentences might be too much, even for a politics thread.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 28, 2010, 08:33:43 PM

At least you aren't in a safe seat. Nottingham North is living proof that you can put a red rosette on a donkey and it gets over 50% of the vote. Wasted vote voting for him or anyone else I guess? Got my postal voting form today, might just not bother...


I'll admit I don't know much about the politics of Nottingham North, but I do know about $69+$6 45 man sitngos on FullTilt.

The tournaments begin when 45 players have registered.

During normal hours, the first 15 register straight away. They're almost all multi tabling regs and will register withing a few seconds of the tournament becoming available.
The next 15 players register significantly slower, but after there are 30 players waiting the last 15 register quite quickly. The last 5 register extrememly quickly indeed.

During quieter periods, there are maybe only 4 or 5 regs that register straight away. It can be extremely slow to get up to a point where about 15/20 players ready to play. If this quorum is achieved within about 15 minutes then people start to actually believe that the tournament will start and stay. If not, players frequently unregister and fk off. The tournament sits with about 5-15 players for half an hour or so and eventually everyone gives up and unregisters.

Obviously if you're interested in the sitngo starting, it's always better to be registered than not. It certainly wouldn't make much sense to have the lobby open, but not register until more players have sat down. It would make even less sense to grumble about not enough people joining the sitngo when you haven't sat down yourself yet.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: redsimon on April 28, 2010, 08:36:29 PM

At least you aren't in a safe seat. Nottingham North is living proof that you can put a red rosette on a donkey and it gets over 50% of the vote. Wasted vote voting for him or anyone else I guess? Got my postal voting form today, might just not bother...


I'll admit I don't know much about the politics of Nottingham North, but I do know about 45 man sitngos.

The tournaments begin when 45 players have registered.

During normal hours, the first 15 register quite quickly. They're almost all multi tabling regs.
The next 15 players register significantly slower, but after there are 30 players waiting the last 15 register quite quickly. The last 5 register extrememly quickly.

During quieter periods, there are maybe only 4 or 5 regs that register straight away. It can be extremely slow to get up to a point of about 15/20 players ready to play. If this quorum is achieved then people start to actually believe that the tournament will start. If not, players frequently unregister and fk off. The tournament sits with about 5-15 players for an hour or so and eventually everyone gives up and unregisters.

If you're interested in the sitngo starting, it's always better to be registered than not. It certainly wouldn't make much sense to have the lobby open, but not register until more players have sat down. It would make even less sense to grumble about not enough people joining the sitngo when you haven't sat down yourself yet.

Should I tick the box to join other sngs tho'? (Ended up voting anyway so wasted vote but not wasted in a sense)...


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 28, 2010, 08:37:45 PM
wiiiiii, you get a sticker. :)

Regarding your question, I have no idea. I've gotten lost in my own metaphor.


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: redsimon on April 28, 2010, 08:38:53 PM
wiiiiii, you get a sticker. :)

QFT before you ninja edit? ($69 sngs your balla ) :)


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: thetank on April 28, 2010, 08:41:15 PM
It's not my money   ;D


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: redsimon on April 28, 2010, 08:44:13 PM
It's not my money   ;D

Does Greekstein stake you online?


Title: Re: wasted votes
Post by: George2Loose on April 28, 2010, 08:49:17 PM
This is why all politics is fucked. All the voting systems are useless. One of the reason why I'd be in favour for a more proportional system is that it might actually start engaging people.