TL;DR
Besides telling you to vote for me, it’s important to understand two other things:
- There is a need to spread the word to vote at all. The more votes in this election, the better. Not just for me, but for the CSM as a whole.
- Voting for a bloc candidate is a wasted vote. They have enough support to get elected and don’t need your vote.
Single Transferrable Voting (STV)
If you haven’t read how this system works and will be applied to this year’s election, here’s a paragraph by Nathan Jameson:
We will be moving to a Single Transferable Vote (STV) based voting system where instead of voting for a single candidate, each voter will pick their top 14 favorite candidates and rank them from 1 to 14. Initially, each vote will be placed on the candidate listed as 1st, but if found unnecessary either because the candidate has more than enough to make the top 14 or if they cannot make top 14 under any circumstances, then the vote will transfer to the candidate listed 2nd. This continues until the vote is exhausted or needed for a candidate to succeed.
What you should get out of this is that it’s important to make as many choices as possible on your slate of 14. To do otherwise is simply throwing away your voice. Here is a VISUAL GUIDE to STV that I found very helpful.
Roc’s Slate
Who to vote for? As I mentioned, voting for a bloc candidate is a waste. Support independents. We need it more.
Here’s my list of who I will be voting for, in random order. No sense inflating anyone’s ego other than my own.
- Roc Wieler
- Nathan Jameson
- Ripard Teg
- Ali Aras
- Unforgiven Storm
- Trebor Daehdoow
- Mike Azariah
- James Arget
- Malcanis
- Korvin
Obviously, I ranked myself first. The rest I like for various reasons but the bottom line is that I believe they would all be valuable for a fair CSM. The astute among you will notice that’s only ten of my fourteen votes.
I’m struggling with the rest honestly.
Do you have any recommendations? Tell me why. I’m always open to discussion and debate. Perhaps I’ll play politics and try to secure a spot on the Goon slate in exchange for putting two of their candidates on mine. We’ll see. I doubt they need ol’ Roc for support.
ROC'S RAMBLINGS 
Roc;
You know I’m not an EVE player. Please re-read your 2 points above and figure out how they explicitly contradict each other. You can’t tell people to just go and vote and that the more votes the better, regardless of candidate, and then proceed to tell them that a vote for a particular candidate is a wasted vote. That’s not how it works.
J
Ah, ok, let me explain the crucial EVE part to you. There are some very large alliances in EVE that essentially dominate the vote with their internal support. Last year such an Alliance candidate received just over 10,000 votes from roughly 50,000 total votes.
That is partly why this year introduced the STV approach. However, these large alliances still have massive voting blocs.
If these alliances are telling their own people to only vote for themselves, they will secure many of the 14 seats available. Votes from regular players will not aid nor hinder this under STV.
So by telling those who would be reading my blog not to vote bloc is something I can do. It’s ensuring that their voice isn’t wasted. It’s trying to bring balance to what may otherwise become an unbalanced CSM.
It’s politics.
Oh, I understand politics well enough. But it’s kind of like telling someone not to vote for the Green Party in Canada – it’s a wasted vote.
I’m not against telling people not to vote bloc. That’s a good strategy on your part. But also telling them that more votes is good for the entire system doesn’t allow them to vote bloc if that’s who they want to vote for.
What you end up saying is: more overall votes is good for the system, as long as I (Roc), approve of who you voted for; if you vote for the bloc, then you shouldn’t bother voting. It’s really a mixed message, and I don’t think you can have it both ways.
In your example, if the Green Party had more than enough guaranteed votes for a majority government, then I would tell people not to waste their vote as they’re a sure thing.
I’m an independent, not part of the Green Party, so need the votes. To your point, the more votes that are given actually provide me a better chance of securing a seat.
I do understand your point and can’t say I disagree. Ultimately people voting is what matters.
At the same time, I want a seat. I want that known. I don’t think that is contradictory. I still stand it’s good politics.