Reply #10: The Single Transferable Vote system might suit you better

[muriel_volestrangler]

You rank candidates, not parties, in a multi-representative constituency, and if a candidate is successful enough to get 'overvotes' - more votes than needed to be elected - those are redistributed among the voters' later choices. This makes it easy to rank individuals you like highly, without tying yourself to just one party.

It's the voting system I'd like to see the most. It's reasonably proportional (how proportional it is depends on the number of representatives per constituency; more of them means it's more proportional, but also means a bigger ballot, and more chance of extremist parties getting someone elected. I think about 5 reps keeps it manageable, while meaning you'd need at least 16% support to get elected), while allowing voters to favour some candidates from one party over others, and mix in independents or other parties, if they want.

The disadvantage, from a typical DU point of view, is that the redistribution of votes almost requires computer counting to be fair (the votes can become fractional; to do it by hand you have to randomly select ballots to redistribute). But I don't see that as a problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Single_transferable_vote