If you could choose, what type of electoral system would you prefer to have?...

[Locut0s]

Here in BC we are about to hold a referendum this fall to potentially change how we vote provincially. Currently we have a first past the post system. The referendum will ask people if they wish to see a change to some type of other system that may potentially offer more proportional representation. What that would look like is hard to know right now. Before the referendum however they have put out a questionnaire and web site to help educate and gather information on people's preferences:

http://engage.gov.bc.ca/howwevote/

I was just reading said material there with interest and I'm curious what people here would prefer to see in the US?

For the sake of this post I'm speaking entirely hypothetically and leaving out all talk of the feasibility of actually changing an electoral system. The actual process of changing an entrenched voting system is extremely complex and involves much struggle as groups that benefited from the old system may fight to keep it in place. But suppose you could just snap your fingers and choose another ballot process. What would you choose?

[TwistOneUp]

1. Whatever you choose...

Make sure it runs on paper ballots. Every type of voting machine can be hacked. And Russia has some very good hackers.

[Locut0s]

6. Indeed I don't believe there are any plans to go digital only...

Although to be honest I don't know for sure. But you are right that digital voting is more susceptible to being hacked. That being said most of the influence in the last US election seems to be more social engineering via hacking social media sites. That kind of hacking can still take place with paper ballots.

[Voltaire2]

2. Instant runoff ranked voting.

[Locut0s]

7. Yes I know that STV is highly regarded. It's also one of the main options in the questionnaire...

I think one problem with having it as an option in a referendum is that while it may be one of the best options it's also one of the more complex. Said complexity may scare people away from choosing it as an option in a referendum.

[Poiuyt]

9. This!!

[Fullduplexxx]

3. One in which a clown like blotus could not end up being president

[Spider Jerusalem]

4. Single transferable vote

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote

[Locut0s]

8. Yup that is one of the leading options in the questionnaire above...

As I was mentioning above I'm not sure it's a good idea necessarily to hold a referendum on this because the complexity of STV may scare people away from choosing it as an option. OK it's not extremely complex but it's definitely one of the more complex voting systems when it comes down to the minutia of how it operates. It's also one of the most fair and proportionally representative, but the public is often scared away by surface complexity. I hope that out of this we at least get something that is an improvement over our current system. I think some kind of open list proportional representation might be a good choice as well:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_list

[randr]

5. I want a system that counts votes as accurately

as the billions of dollars moving through.the bankig systems are counted.
Seems the electronic internet method is extremely accurate.

[GulfCoast66]

10. Parliamentary system

We would be as rational as France and Germany