What London's first ranked ballot mock election looked like

Some say you can't compare apples to oranges but that's exactly what some 40 Londoners had to do in a mock mayoral election. Kind of.

City staff held a mock election on Thursday to test the software and hardware to run the nation's first ranked ballot municipal vote.

Staff used random names inspired by fruits such as apples, oranges and bananas, which were physically placed on each table for voting purposes.

• London gears up for Canada's first ranked ballot election

How it works

Londoners will mark their top three choices in order of preference in the new ranked ballot system.

In the current first-past-the-post system, the person who gets the highest percentage of votes wins.

However,if one candidate doesn't have 50 per cent plus one of the votes, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated. The ballots are then counted using the next candidate choice.

The process is repeated until a candidate with 50 per cent plus one is chosen.

More than 40 people attended the event on Thursday to learn more about it.

Here's what some had to say about the changes.

Evelynne Kobes

"I'm really excited for [the change] because I find that London is a conservative city and not wanting to try new things. So I think it's interesting and wonderful that we're going to try it out because to me it's a 'why not see if it works' In talking to other people they seem to be confused. But I think we need to give it a try."

Zac Piette

"Democracy is a difficult subject for a lot of people. With ranked ballots people are able to express their opinions in a more transparent way."

Spencer Reid

"I think it's fascinating that London is the first municipality to do it and I want to learn as much about it as I can."

"I'm passionate because it's the way Londoners can express themselves politically and express who they want to lead us so I think people should have as much flexibility as they can so I feel really feel confident with the people running our city."