There are discussions afoot in Christchurch on the topic of how we vote for our City Councillors and Community board representatives. Many feel that we would be better served as a city if we used the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system instead of First Past the Post (FPP).
Why? Because this system, used on a ward or community board basis, should deliver much better representation than first past the post. A number of cities in NZ already use Single Transferable Vote and this appears to be the case.
In the last election where First Past the Post was used, six mayors in NZ were elected with less than 30% of the vote. The same happens quite often on a ward by ward basis. The first past the post system that we use causes this when there are a number of good candidates. So, for example, in the last election in South Canterbury, a strong farming area, one of the representatives on ECAN is Green which is not what you would expect from that area! This happened because a number of farmers stood and the vote got split between them as per the illustration below.
Of course, this can happen differently in other wards where it might go the other way. There might be a number of strong advocates for clean water but one with different views get in because the vote FOR clean water gets split across the other candidates who were all campaigning for it.
Under STV, voters are asked to rank candidates in order of preference. If your preferred candidate does not get in, then your second vote will be counted and then your third. This means that the overall best ranked person will get in and the vote cannot be split in the same way.
If you would like the opportunity to discuss how we vote for our local councils, keep an eye out for people collecting signatures asking to have the conversation, or message this page https://www.facebook.com/stvcanterbury to get hold of petition sheets (only original sheets with original signatures are acceptable).
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