Here are two audience participation demonstrates intended to show how AV works and how it can give a better outcome than first-past-the-post.
Needs a reasonably large number of participants (probably more than 20). It is intended to demonstrate how similar rival candidates can cancel each other out in a first-past-the-post election and allow an unpopular third candidate to win. There are four candidates: Adams, Brown, Clark, and Davis
These demonstration 1 instructions can be printed out.
Download the four pages of voter profiles 1 , print them and cut them up along the lines into a total of 32 cards. Sort these in order of the number at the top left. (These cards can be collected up after this demo and reused. Maybe worth printing on thin card)
Download the page of Ballot papers , there are 10 on the page, print out and cut up enough to provide two for each voter. (These are not reusable)
Hand out one voter profiles in order and two voting slips to each participant.
Instruct the participants to use one of their voting slips to vote for a single candidate by putting a X next to their name
Collect the voting slips and sort into piles according to the vote.
You should find that Adams has a clear majority, Clark and Davis have about the same, Brown gets very few.
Ask for a show of hands of those who find the result
Most voters should find the result very unsatisfactory. Few will find it acceptable and even fewer will have the result they wanted
Now ask the participants to vote according to the alternative vote system and put the numbers 1 to 4 in the boxes in order of preference.
Collect the voting slips and sort them into piles according to first preference.
Brown should get the least number of votes. The voting slips in this pile are redistributed according to the second preference, ie the candidate with a 2 in their box.
There are now three piles and smallest is almost certainly Davis. The voting slips in this pile are redistributed according to either the second preference where the first choice was for Davis or the third choice where either the first choice was for Brown and the second for Davis or the first choice was for Davis and the second for Brown.
There are now just two piles and Clark should be the clear winner.
Again ask for a show of hands for the same questions. This time the majority will find the result acceptable and few find it strongly unsatisfactory. The number who have got what they really wanted should be higher than the first time.
If you have a white/black-board, flip-chart or other writable display, write the results for the participants to see. If all 32 voter profiles are used, the result should look like this:
| First-past-the-post | AV | |
| Very unsatisfactory | 15 | 2 |
| Acceptable | 14 | 19 |
| Really wanted | 4 | 7 |
This demonstration shows how a ineffective candidate in a safe seat is less safe under AV.
These demonstration 2 instructions can be printed out
It should work well like demonstration 1 above with just 8 participants. Alternatively the presenter might ask for eight volunteers and do the demonstration on stage, in which case this slide might be useful to set the scene.
There are four candidates: Adams, Brown, Clark, and Davis and a set of 8 A5 voter profile pages , each giving a summary of the situation and particular voters opinions of each of the candidates.
Adams for the Rostrum party should get the least number of votes. The voting slips in this pile are redistributed according to the second preference, ie the candidate with a 2 in their box.
There are now three piles and smallest is almost certainly Clark. The voting slips in this pile are redistributed according to either the second preference where the first choice was for Clark or the third choice where the first and second choices were for Adams and Clark in either order.
There are now just two piles and Davis should be the clear winner.
Ask for a show of hands for:
You could point out that this is why so many established politicians are opposed to AV.