Thread by @IanDunt

I love London's mayoral voting system: it's the perfect mix of idealism and pragmatism. First preference vote for the candidate you like best. Second preference vote to the one most likely to win.

After a lifetime in the deranged bullshit straightjacket of first-past-the-post, it's so liberating. You can express your *actual preference* without having to worry that you'll let in someone even worse.

There's a little bit of confusion over this tweet, which on election day isn't ideal. So let me put it simply.

The London mayoral election uses a supplementary vote system. That means you get to pick TWO candidates - your first preference and your second.

If any candidate gets 50% of the first preference votes, they win and the election is over. But if no-one does, we go to stage two.

In stage two, all the candidates are knocked out apart from the top two. In this case that's likely to be Khan and Bailey.

They then count the second preference votes of people who voted for other candidates and these are added to Khan and Bailey's first preference vote tallies.

So let's say you are a left wing voter who cares about green issues. In a general election, you will often have to vote Labour or Lib Dem in order to keep the Tories out, even though you prefer the Green party.

But in this election, you can vote Green party for first preference, then Labour for second preference. That shows your 'pure' political view, without taking the risk of letting the Tories in.

I love this system, because I am a pessimistic old codger who mostly views elections as an exercise in blocking the worst bastard from getting into power. But inside me, like a tiny angel, there is an idealist trying to get out.

Supplementary vote allows me to express my ideal outcome without sabotaging my least-bad outcome. It's head *and* heart. I find it very beautiful.

Other people find beauty in sunrises and mountainous landscapes. Fuck all that. True beauty is the supplementary vote electoral system.