Yes2AV, Yes to AV, Yes to Fairer Votes – or what?

The “Yes” campaign for spring’s referendum on electoral reform nicely illustrates some of the questions involved in getting messaging and online presence to match up.

First is the messaging question: what to call the campaign? It’s gone for – rightly in my view – “Yes to Fairer Votes” rather than a form of words that uses “AV” or “alternative vote” as these are technical details describing the process whilst “fairer votes” is the benefit to be delivered.

However, what that leaves then is a host of different search terms that the public might use when looking for the campaign site or information about the campaign – with variations on AV/alternative vote and fair/fairer votes not to mention referendum/campaign.

I don’t envy those trying to make sure the Yes To Fairer Votes site comes out high in search results their job!

As to why I’m supporting the Yes campaign for the referendum, see my post Why AV reform would still be a big improvement:

Under preferential voting most candidates hoping to win most of the time have to have an eye on appealing to the second preferences of those who cast a first preference for another party. That imposes a significant burden on the style of politics where you seek out any difference between yourself and another party and inflate it to baby-eating monstrosity levels.

Instead of politics where everything is black and white, AV with its shades of grey when you vote encourages shades of grey in campaigning.

That does not stop passionate disagreement where it’s justified, but it would be a healthy brake on some of the more juvenile styles of politics that we see all too often.