SIR,
I have been voting in elections for 37 years; in fact I was the youngest voter in my constituency in February 1974, being just 18 years and a day.
In all that time I have only once managed to elect an MP, nearly always being on the losing side in the first past the post system.
Still, I keep turning up at the ballot box undeterred. However, many gave up years ago or never bothered in the first place.
The biggest problem with our electoral system is that a lot of people just don't vote.
This, combined with the current "winner takes all" situation, enables governments to be elected by as little as a quarter of the population.
One solution might be to make voting compulsory, but another would be to make the electoral process more attractive.
For all its faults AV at least gives everyone a feeling that they might make a difference, whereas, under the current system, many voters in 'safe' constituencies probably don't bother to go to the polling station, recognising that the outcome is a foregone conclusion.
In Wales, that foregone conclusion is the Labour and Plaid Cymru MPs will be elected almost everywhere except Monmouthshire. AV could shake up this assumption that these parties should rule in perpetuity.
I will therefore vote for AV. In fact I used to use it to elect prefects when I was a school housemaster; it prevented minority pressure groups electing prefects, disliked by most other pupils. It proved popular.
My final word is please vote in the referendum, whichever voting method you favour.
Nothing is more corrosive to democracy than widespread apathy.
Dr Keith Moseley
(Monmouth)