Voting system Instant-runoff voting | Dates 27 Oct 2016 – 7 Nov 2016 | |
Location Prince Edward Island, Canada | ||
The 2016 Plebiscite on Democratic Renewal was a non-binding referendum held in the Canadian province of Prince Edward Island between 27 October – 7 November 2016. The referendum asked which of five voting systems residents would prefer to use in electing members to the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island. The referendum, after four instant run-off rounds, indicated mixed member proportional representation was the preferred choice with over 52% support on the final ballot.
Contents
Despite a variety of voting options and a long voting period, the final 36.46% turnout was very low by PEI standards. The province regularly gets more than 80% turnout in provincial general elections.
Question
The official question on the ballot was: Rank the following electoral systems in your order of preference, 1 through 5 (with "1st Choice" being your most preferred and "5th choice" being your least preferred). You may choose as many, or as few, of the electoral system options as you want.
The options were listed alphabetically on the ballot as:
Results
Voters were given the opportunity to rank the five options from most preferred to least preferred, although they did not have to rank all five options. The most preferred option, the referendum being non-binding, was chosen using instant-runoff voting: if more than half of the voters chose one option as their first choice, that option won; if no option captured a majority of first-choice votes, then the option with the fewest first-choice votes was "dropped", and those ballots were distributed to the other options based on the second choice on those ballots. This was repeated as necessary until one option had a majority of the votes cast.
The Mixed Member Proportional Representational option led, after 4 rounds, followed by the existing first-past-the-post system. Voter turnout was low, at 36.46%
Voting eligibility and methods
This plebiscite marked several "firsts" in Canadian electoral history. Sixteen- and seventeen-year-old PEI residents were permitted to vote on the grounds that they will be aged eighteen (and therefore eligible to vote under normal election rules) in the next provincial election, which will likely be held using the voting system that wins this plebiscite. As well, plebiscite voters were able to submit their votes online or via touch-tone telephone for the first time in a major Canadian vote. Internet and telephone voting was open from 12:00 noon Saturday 29 October 2016 and ran until 7:00 p.m. on Monday, 7 November 2016. In-person voting was open in polling stations across the province on Friday, 4 November 2016, 4:00 p.m. - 9:00 p.m., and Saturday, 5 November 2016, 10:00 a.m. - 8:00 p.m.
Aftermath
Premier Wade MacLauchlan said after the vote that he is doubtful the result of the referendum "can be said to constitute a clear expression of the will of Prince Edward Islanders" due to the unusually low turnout. MacLauchlan did commit to discussing the results when the provincial legislature resumed on November 15, 2016; noting the need to examine the urban and rural breakdown of votes, among other issues.
MacLauchlan's government introduced a motion in the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island to hold a second referendum on electoral reform at the next provincial general election, stating that the low turnout for the referendum did not provide a mandate to implement the change and the need for a more specific referendum question with two choices. A motion by Green Party leader Peter Bevan-Baker to implement mixed-member proportional representation in line with the referendum results was defeated on November 22, 2016 by a vote of 6-20.