How does this STV thing work, anyway?
Short answer is, pick the x candidates you like or are 'meh' about; rank them from 1 to x; leave a blank against the other candidates that you don't like.But how does it really work? What happens to those numbers?
Just ask Dennis, the election Koala!http://www.chickennation.com/2013/08/18/you-cant-waste-your-vote/
Here's a snippet of the clearest explanation of Preferential Voting I've seen...
With STV and multiple winners it's slightly more complex, but the idea is the same.
http://www.stv.govt.nz/stv/how.htm
So complex you need flash animations to explain it. So that link won't work on your iPad because that device is not capable of the complexity of STV. And all of the candidates are film stars and none of them appear to have chastising the poor as a policy plank.
One difference, is, you can leave entries blank. You can vote for just one candidate, or 3 candidates - you don't have to rank the ones you hate in reverse order of abhorrence, you can just leave their boxes blank. Kenneth the Voting Dingo has to fill in every last number in every last box, but that's because he's Australian.
How do I vote for Wellington Mayor?
That one's easy, because it's really first-past-the-post. The next mayor will either be John, or it'll be Celia.So put a '1' beside the candidate of your choice that is named John or Celia. Leave the other names blank. They're just time-wasters. Though Dennis the Election Koala would slap me for saying this.
How do I vote for Wellington Councillors?
This is harder. You're choosing 3 from a list of 12, and it's not so clear-cut who will get in. (Well, it might be, but you'd need to like, read the news and stuff to know that.) So you need to actually read something about the candidates and figure out their views and policies and suchlike. Yes, I know! That's pretty hard and involves minutes and minutes of both reading and thinking.Clearly the candidates think that's unnecessary effort too, because at least 4 of them in my ward have made life far easier for me by putting no information about themselves whatsoever on the internet. So I put no numbers whatsoever against their names on the voting form, in return - it's only fair.
For the others, I did this.
- Read about each candidate - figure out where they stand on things that matter to you. Give them a score out of 10 or something.
- Figure out an order of candidates that you like or are neutral. Then put '1' through 'x' on the voting form based on that order. The ones you don't like at all - leave their entries blank.
Where do I find information about the candidates?
Here are some good sources that have more than enough info:- Strathmore Park blog: http://strathmorepark.org/wcc-elections-2013/
- WECC Questionaire: http://www.wecc.org.nz/advocacy/mayoral-debate-2013
- WCC Watch: http://wccwatch.wordpress.com/candidates/
- Stuff 'Your Voice': http://yourvoice.stuff.co.nz/local/index.php
- http://vote.co.nz
Strathmore Park Blog
Ian Apperley has a great blog that summarises all the candidates' positions and sources of information on them:He provides links to all their policies and opinions on their websites, vote.co.nz, twitter, facebook, and other places. He summarises their positions. And he adds his opinion; but he's made it easy to separate out his opinion from facts about the candidates which is great. For instance, he'll praise candidates with good, clear, actionable policies that you can find, but then in another paragraph tell us that he doesn't agree with those policies and say why.
Follow the links on each candidate page and read about what they really think. Google the 'ghost' candidates and see what you can find - some of them even have publically open Facebook pages where you can see their photos from the AC/DC concert last year!
WECC Questionnaire
The Wellington Employers' Chamber of Commerce sounds a bit like the Business Roundtable to me; a shadowy force of darkness. But you can't complain about their questionnaire. And you can't help but notice that it forces candidates to all answer the same questions, in a format that gives them not too much ability to weasel-word their way out of revealing their true colours. Well worth reading every Questionnaire for every candidate you might consider voting for. (Let me know what you find, because I didn't bother.)A particular question you should pay close attention to is this one:
What are your views on amalgamations with neighbouring councils? Should we have a super city in Wellington?
The next electoral term is going to be all about the Super City - not public transport or roading. Plans for transport have been made and they'll be implemented. Too many candidates are talking about 2010's issues and not enough are talking about 2015's...
WCC Watch
This blog looks like a goldmine of information about issues of the day and candidates' policies about them. I didn't read it though because I was bored with local body politics by the time I got to it.Stuff 'Your Voice'
Looks pretty good ay!http://vote.co.nz
Same as WCC Watch, I'm sure it's great.How do I vote for the Wellington Regional Councillors?
Same deal as the city councillors. Use the links above and figure out who you like, who's 'meh' and who is terrible. Rank the good and OK ones, leave the terrible ones blank.How do I vote for the District Health Board Members?
This one's far too hard. I don't know any of them and I don't know what a District Health Board is supposed to do anyway.I'm going to ask Helen because she's wise and knows about this stuff; I'll just do what Helen says.
So there you go! The informed community at work.
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