POL 222 Lecture Notes - Lecture 11: 18 Months, Instant-Runoff Voting, Paul Reitsma
22 Jun 2018
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POL 222 SEMINAR NOV 17
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Elections allow citizens to choose their representatives
Elections serve the functions of legimation, integration, socialization
Legitimation: allows every eligible adult to vote on a preferred candidate
Can depend on the electoral system
Integration: compete for differences and celebrate differences
The ability to “sell” yourself as different.
Broad coverage of the election.
The public are able to map out the missing pieces and brings people together
Socialization: requires a mass acceptance of values
Importance of standing up for what matters and the symbolicness of voting on a
ballot
Questions to ponder:
How free and fair are Canada’s elections?
Should those elected act as delegates or trustees on behalf of their voters?
Representative democracy vs. direct democracy?
THE RIGHT TO VOTE
From 1867 to 1885 federal elections based on each province’s laws on the right to vote
In 1st election, only males owning property of a certain value was allowed to vote
Mostly in the four founding provinces
BC and PEI= 1st provinces to not have property but BC has race prohibitions
Explicit racial prohibitions in BC, Ontario and Manitoba
Almost all Indians were unable to vote since they could not own real estate
The extentsion of the franchise progressed slowly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries
The secret ballot was introduced federally in 1874
Extensions of the right to vote, first to male renters rather than just land owners BC and
PEI were first to make no distinction based on property
All on active service during WW1 were enfranchished , including women and racially
excluded
Wives, widows, and female relatives of males serving also given the right to vote
All women in 1918 (first eligible election was 1921)
Chinese in 1947
Status Indians in 1960
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms now guarantees the vote to all Canadian citizens
Most recently enfranchised: prisoners, mental hospital patients, and judges
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
ELECTION 101
Canadian federal and provincial elections are technically a collection of simultaneous,
local elections
The country or province is divided up into local electoral districts (aka. Constituency,
riding, seat)
338 federally and 87 in BC’s provincial elections
In each district, individuals stand as candidates and all eligible voters get to chose one
candidate to vote for
The candidate with the most otes wins
Depending on how many Candidates and their relative popularity in the riding
In 2015 federal election, the % vote for the winning candidates ranged from
81.8% to 28.6%
Election Mechanic
The chief electoral officer oversees the independent administration of an election to
ensure free and fair elections
A voter’s list enumerates all eligible voters
Lists used to be complied each election by door to door enumerators
Most jurisdiction now have a permanent voters list updated each year from tax filings,
drivers’ licenses, etc.
Candidates must file nomination papers (and often must be nominated by a particular
political party)
Each party’s nomination of candidates has a big impact on eelctions and demoracy
Rare for an independent candidate to be elected
ELECTORAL MAP
Modern distribution done by independent commissions
A reaction to history of gerrymandering (drawing electoral boundaries with an
invested interest and draw boundaries to their own advantages)
Two stage process of redistribution:
Determining how many seats will be in HOC
Drawing constitutency bounadires that follow “community of interests”
These processes have varied slightly over the years, and numerous concerns such as
creating constituencies of roughly equal size have been or need to be addressed
Supreme Court has set a basic variation in population size for ridings of +/- 25% from
average population size
ELECTORAL TIMING
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Elections serve the functions of legimation, integration, socialization. Legitimation: allows every eligible adult to vote on a preferred candidate. The public are able to map out the missing pieces and brings people together. Importance of standing up for what matters and the symbolicness of voting on a ballot. From 1867 to 1885 federal elections based on each province"s laws on the right to vote. In 1st election, only males owning property of a certain value was allowed to vote. Bc and pei= 1st provinces to not have property but bc has race prohibitions. Explicit racial prohibitions in bc, ontario and manitoba. Almost all indians were unable to vote since they could not own real estate. The extentsion of the franchise progressed slowly throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The secret ballot was introduced federally in 1874. Extensions of the right to vote, first to male renters rather than just land owners bc and.
