wasted votes

[thetank]

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?

[thetank]

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.

[kinboshi]

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?

[thetank]

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.

[kinboshi]

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. 

[redsimon]

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. 

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...

[thetank]

 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. 

[TightEnd]

 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

[EvilPie]

 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.

[kinboshi]

 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.

[thetank]

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.

[thetank]

 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!

[kinboshi]

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.

[thetank]

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.

[thetank]

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.