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Second preference would affect the final pair of Presidential candidates if second preferences flipped the 3rd / 2nd order before the 3rd place candidate was relegated. You'd have to have the margin in 2007 and guess how the preferences of the voters for the lower placed candidates would distribute.

The two round general election system is oriented to accomplishing a similar end as the second preference system, but generating more work for journalists. But given the 12.5% of registered voters ~ 15.6% of the electorate with 80% turnout, 19.2% of the electorate with 65% turnout ~ a second preference makes it easier for minor parties to get over the line for the second round.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.

by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Tue May 8th, 2012 at 12:49:06 PM EST
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Indeed -- in a certain number of cases, it might, for example, enable a FDG or EELV candidate to qualify for the second round, and/or finish ahead of the PS candidate, if electors exchanged second preferences. In practice, I suspect, there would be too much dispersal of preferences. Unless Australian-style how-to-vote instructions were issued by parties. But that's anti-democratic.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Tue May 8th, 2012 at 01:32:56 PM EST
[ Parent ]
Beating the threshold and hitting either first or second among the left would seem to be the key. With second preference voting, the "left solidarity" action would be for everyone but the first two left party candidates to stand aside.

I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.
by BruceMcF (agila61 at netscape dot net) on Tue May 8th, 2012 at 03:02:18 PM EST
[ Parent ]

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