News release – Yukoners vote YES to ranked voting and electoral reform
Today, in a historic moment, Yukoners voted “yes“ to ranked voting by a significant margin. More than 56% of plebiscite votes were in favour of the “yes” option, to switch to a ranked voting system as recommend by the Citizens’ Assembly on Electoral Reform.
This is a fantastic milestone for the Yukon, and for contemporary politics across Canada. Yukon voters have demonstrated that electoral reform is possible, when so many previous attempts across Canada haven’t succeeded.
Ranked voting means more democratic elections, and a more welcoming and collaborative political environment. It’s a great fit for the Yukon, given our unique geography and population. And, it’s already used across Canada by political parties to elect their leadership candidates. The Citizens’ Assembly did outstanding work to research electoral reform options, and it’s great to see Yukoners enthusiastically support their ranked voting recommendation today.
We call upon the elected Yukon Party to listen to Yukon voters, who strongly voted today in favour of ranked voting. We hope that the elected government will move quickly to implement the changes recommended by the Citizens’ Assembly to the Yukon’s election legislation. Yukon voters have spoken, and we expect to see ranked voting implemented in legislation in time for the next Yukon territorial election.
As premier-elect Currie Dixon stated:
“Tonight Yukoners chose to move on from the status quo. They chose a new path. They chose change.”
By voting 56% in favour of ranked voting, Yukoners clearly chose a new path: “yes” to electoral reform.
We’re really happy to see these results, and we’re grateful to everyone who has participated in and contributed to the Vote YES Yukon campaign over the past month. Thanks in particular to all the Citizens’ Assembly members, to Floyd McCormick, the former clerk of the Yukon Legislature, and to Yukoners across the territory who helped spread the word about electoral reform.
And, most of all, we’re grateful to the thousands of Yukon voters who voted “yes” in today’s plebiscite. Thanks to you all for being awesome. 💖
As of 1:00am on Nov. 4, 10,186 of 18,130 counted plebiscite votes – 56.18% – were “yes” votes in support of ranked voting.
