Citizens' Assembly on Electoral Reform (British Columbia)

Still the template most assemblies copy, and the most painful near miss. In 2004, 160 British Columbians, one man and one woman from each of the 79 electoral districts plus two Aboriginal members, spent most of the year learning electoral systems before choosing BC-STV, a local form of the single transferable vote, and voting 146 to 7 to put it to the public. In May 2005, 57.7 percent of voters said yes and majorities backed it in 77 of 79 districts, but the government had set a 60 percent threshold, so nothing changed. A second referendum in 2009 drew only 39.1 percent. A reminder that an assembly's legitimacy does not pass automatically to voters who never saw its work.