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Why Your Vote Doesn't Count

CGP Grey explains first-past-the-post voting and why it pushes elections toward two dominant parties. It is the first in his series on electoral systems.

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Why HN readers recommended it

HN's go-to explainer for why FPTP leads to a two-party system, linked in countless voting-reform and US politics threads.

This is a summary from the source dataset, not an endorsement by Hacker News or the video creator.

Video & recommendation details

Creator / channel
CGP Grey
Topic
voting systems
Format
explainer
Level
general
HN recommenders in dataset
10
HN mentions in dataset
20
Recommendation years in dataset
2015–2025

These counts and years describe the included Hacker News records; they are not YouTube views or the video’s publication date.

From the original HN conversations

Excerpts from the recorded comments. Follow each source for the full comment and surrounding discussion.

  • I highly recommend the following CGP Grey video for further detail about the problems of First Past the Post voting ( [VIDEO] ). > But instead we have FPTP, and why? Its the simplest and most naive electoral system so Joe Bloggs understands it. Its …

    polymatter on Hacker News · 2015-04
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  • C.G.P. Grey has an entire series on why our voting system forces a two-party system. The issue isn't getting your neighbour to change their voting habits, the issue is changing the system: [VIDEO]

    Quanticles on Hacker News · 2015-01
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  • Ideologically, from a single voter's perspective, you're right. But practically, and looking at the entire population, it's not. The first past the post voting system we use will always result in two prominent parties, and the spoiler effect certainly exists. I've always found this video …

    npizzolato on Hacker News · 2015-11
    In Lessig Ends Presidential Campaign

Summaries, classifications and recommendation records are from the HackerTube source dataset. Read about this library and its limitations.

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