Alternative Vote referendum

I’ve been alarmed by reports that the referendum to change the UK voting system to the alternative vote might end up with a ‘No’ vote on Thursday.
The Yes campaign has attempted to sell the benefits of AV, but it seems that many people are still unaware of how it works. Meanwhile the well-funded No campaign, with much influence over the media, is running dishonest adverts (and the Advertising Standards Authority is not allowed to intervene in political advertising).

So I thought I would do what I can and send this email. Apologies for clogging up your inbox if you were already going to vote Yes (nice one) or if you cannot vote in this referendum, in which case just ignore me.

The fact is the current system simply does not work if there are more than 2 candidates standing for election (the attached picture sums this up nicely :) ). It is a flawed system, we have an opportunity to make it better, and it would be a shame if we end up feeling like we missed such a historic opportunity.

If you want to know how AV works, this explains it pretty well, using post-it notes (2 minutes and 7 seconds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wA3_t-08Vr0.

(If its still not clear, here's another explanation (2 mins and 41 seconds): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FstA45lxgFs)

Do you want to see an end to tactical voting, so you can vote for your true first choice without it being a wasted vote?

Do you want to see an end to MPs winning constituencies when most of the voters would have preferred someone else to be their MP?

If so I urge you to vote Yes for the Alternative Vote in the referendum on Thursday. Forget about who is in politics at the moment, play the long game and make sure that in all future elections your vote will be counted.