In the wake of the #aras25 election and the disturbingly large numbers of spoiled votes, here’s my modest proposal for election reform.
It won’t get any traction of course because turkeys won’t vote for Christmas.
I’m calling it Blended #Sortition
We already know sortition in this country through the #citizenassembly process that was thrown various political hot potatoes over last few years and dealt with them extraordinary well (1/3)
#aras25 #Sortition #citizenassembly
Sortition is the process where we choose at random a representative for our parliament. We pay them well for their time. We might also agree to shortish terms so we get a good selection of people. Say a six month term.
Anyway the key to my proposal is - each election counts the uncast and spoiled votes as virtual votes for a sortition candidate. So in a 5 seater if nobody votes that constituency returns 5 seats whose TDs are chosen randomly. (2/3)
#aras25 #Sortition #citizenassembly
If the constituency has 90% turnout for regular candidates and no spoiled votes then there’s little chance for a sortitioned rep for that constituency. No transfers possible to sortitioned apart from untransferable votes.
So people who don’t vote or feel they had no option but to spoil their vote actually get represented fairly. (3/3)
Fran O'Reilly