we’re straying well beyond electoral reform at this point and, really, I’m not sure that’s desirable at this stage.
Indeed, I’m happy to leave the details of MP remuneration for another time (and topic?), just that it’s important that some scheme should be in place to enable anyone to run.
If the costs of the campaign are covered, and donations prohibited, then current salary furlough should be enough, and still compensate the employer to an amount more closely matched to their costs.
Of course, those costs will vary, but that’s a complexity beyond this scope. The temp carpark attendant may be cheaper than the employee, but a sysadmin contractor, probably a lot more expensive. Notice periods are tricky for snap elections. One would hope that, in the normal course of events with plenty of time, anyone wishing to succeed in the House could work something out with their boss to cover the absence.
They wouldn’t have to publicly declare their candidacy, but the furlough board would know, as would their boss. At this stage, the candidate will probably be either unknown, so little for vested interests to get excited about, or someone who’s run in the past, so not really a secret anyway.
If the taxpayer is financing the campaigns, would there be a cap on the number of candidates?
It would have to be on a first-come-first-served basis, which could potentially be advantageous to the better off, especially if the election is called at short notice, but I wouldn’t want any part of the current government vetting who runs.
Or could we open ourselves to the possibility of hundreds running for the same seat? Thousands? I imagine it’s only a miniscule percentage of government spending, but the price of the scheme will raise questions.
How would that look on the ballot paper?
The idea of a single column, onto which you stick your choices by peeling them off another sheet is the simplest approach I can think of that allows ranking and eliminates the risk of ranking two candidates equally
The most fool-proof, yes, I wonder how expensive it is to produce all of those stickers compared to providing a pencil. Worth a trial though.
