Sunday, December 14, 2008

Voting Controversy

I won't pretend to understand the scoring system, but it seems that a number of people who voted by telephone in the recent Strictly Come Dancing contest were rather disgruntled to find that their votes were meaningless because the judges' votes had already settled the outcome.

I'm not really clear on how this happened. If the judges' votes had been revealed, then one could say it's at least partly the fault of the people concerned (though the BBC probably should've pointed out that there was no point voting). If the judges votes weren't revealed, then one could simply say people took that risk, knowing that their vote may prove meaningless, and it is no more reasonable to complain about the fact that their vote was meaningless because of the judges' votes than to complain that their vote was meaningless because most of the public disagreed with them...

In any case, it's good to see that people feel strongly about making their voices heard - if only they felt so strongly about electoral rules that effectively exclude most from a say in matters of government...

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