Letter: Vote for Jenkins

Sir: Your leader "A surprising vote in favour of democracy" (5 November) asserts that the Alternative Vote system would have prevented Jesse "The Body" Ventura from being elected as Governor of Minnesota. This conclusion rests on the somewhat shaky assumption that most Democrat voters would give a higher preference to the Republican candidate than to Mr Ventura - a Reform Party candidate opposed to big-money politics (not unlike Martin Bell MP). Perhaps the key lesson from the US elections is that when presented with a narrow choice - in terms of both candidates and policies - most people decided not to vote at all.

BEN CARLIN

Brussels