LETTER – Ranked ballot would resolve the issue of vote splitting

It seems something has changed for Mel Rothenburger recently. On October 2^nd, he referenced vote-splitting when musing about the possibility of additional incumbent Councillors joining Mike O’Reilly in the mayoral race: “It could very well result in a vote-splitting situation similar to the 2022 election.” Four days later, though, he described vote-splitting in municipal elections as a “myth.” Odd.

Vote-splitting is most definitely a problem, even in municipal elections. In any election, multiple candidates who are viewed as somewhat similar can split the votes between them, opening a path for a dissimilar candidate who may be less popular overall to win.

Anyone who interviews voters, including pollsters, can confirm the mental gymnastics that voters perform in advance of every election: instead of marking their ballot for the person they truly support, they end up voting for the person they believe has the best chance of defeating the candidate they despise—precisely in order to avoid splitting the vote.

The pattern is easier to identify when there are parties involved. As Mel Rothenburger notes, the number of people who support the dominant party (or perspective) in any given area is usually less than half of voters. The majority of voters are left trying to gauge other parties’ levels of support in order to vote strategically. Word of mouth, media comments on the “horse race,” and of course strategic voting sites are all used to try and make our one precious vote as effective as possible.

We often hear people say “I can’t vote my conscience (Party X) in this election, because they don’t have a hope of winning, so I’m voting Party Y to avoid handing victory to Party Z.” Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. What is clear is that people hesitate to vote for their preferred candidate for fear of helping elect the party they most strongly dislike—through splitting the vote.

The same dynamics apply whether there is a party label or not. A party affiliation simplifies voters’ tasks by acting as a mental shorthand for the type of assessments all of us make independently about each candidate’s views, much in the same way that a slate would indicate shared priorities. (And while we haven’t yet had parties in municipal politics here, they are on their way: there is already a Conservative Party registered for the 2026 election in Kamloops and many other communities around the province).

Using a ranked ballot for mayoral contests would ensure that more of us would be satisfied with the winner. We can rest assured that we’ll elect someone who the majority of us can live with—rather than the #1 choice of only 30% of voters (who may be deeply unpopular with the majority of voters).

Using a ranked ballot would eliminate the negative effects of vote-splitting, meaning that voters could simply vote for the person they prefer. If your first choice candidate doesn’t have enough votes to win, your second choice ranking would come into play. It’s definitely a better way to vote for Mayor and Council.

Of course, anyone who wants to stick with a simple X is free to do so. But allowing voters the option to provide more nuanced input on their ballots for Mayor and Council should be a no-brainer.

GISELA RUCKERT
Kamloops

EDITOR’S NOTE: Votes are certainly always split among candidates and it becomes especially obvious when several candidates are in the running, as was the case in the 2022 civic election. It’s the theory that “vote splitting” somehow provides an advantage to one candidate or another that I question.