B.C. NDP not dead yet—and how about that proportional representation thing?

The results are coming in in B.C.'s provincial election, tonight... so far, it looks like the opposition NDP might win 35 ridings across the province, compared with the last election in 2001, when they only won three! (The governing B.C. Liberals under Gordon I-hope-he-hasn't-had-a-drink-since-Hawai‘i Campbell are leading with 44, so far.)

The thing to watch, though, in this election is that political hot potato known as proportional representation. B.C. voters had the opportunity today to vote on whether they want their provincial elections to be based on a modified proportional representation system. A CP story tonight, referenced above, says:

Running parallel to the election was the low-key referendum campaign that asked British Columbians whether they wanted to adopt a system of proportional representation called the single transferable vote.

Other provinces were watching the results closely.

The problem, as I see it, is how to make this single-transferable-vote system comprehensible to the majority of voters out there (if you want SVT to pass)—and, more importantly, do most people see STV as helpful to the political process, or a hindrance? We shall see.