[fvc-wat-disc] Possibly dumb question on FPTP...

[Dave Arthur]

Hi Jay
The term comes from horse racing where the first horse that passes the post wins and all the others lose and get nothing.
That’s just what happens in each riding where the candidate that gets the most votes wins and the other candidates lose and all the votes that they received have no influence on the overall results whatsoever.
The idea is that all votes should have some effect on the overall representation which is what PR achieves.
Dave

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

From: Jay Judkowitz
Sent: Sunday, February 4, 2018 3:14 PM
To: FVC Waterloo Region Discussion
Subject: [fvc-wat-disc] Possibly dumb question on FPTP...

So, does anyone know why it's actually called "first past the post"?  

That name makes it sound like there is some marker there and it's a race to pass it.  Like, first past 30% wins.  But, there is no post at all, nothing that can be determined even knowing the number of candidates.  Shouldn't it be called something like "Plurality Voting" or "Plurality Takes All" or something more descriptive?

Thanks in advance for the education!

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