To the Editor,
Municipal elections in Canada use the multiple vote plurality process: vote for many with one vote for each seat.
This method favours incumbents and usually results in sweeps by organized groups that can pull the highest number of votes, however low their percentage of support. This is what causes voter apathy, it’s not stupidity, it’s despair.
In desperation, savvy voters have learned to ‘plump’ their votes by not using most of their votes. They sacrifice votes they might have cast to make sure no other candidate is advantaged who might thus get more votes than the plumpees.
I am urging voters to do their homework and fill their ballots with votes for people they know they can respect and trust. Only leave boxes unmarked if you have been incapable of identifying worthy candidates.
If your list includes people you either know nothing about or have no reliable recommendation for, you are undermining democracy.
Marjorie StewartLantzville