Posts Tagged ‘voting’

Postal voting – essentially dead

Written By: - Date published: 7:41 am, February 25th, 2020 - 62 comments

Stuff has an article up about last years local body elections in Auckland. As usual  the interesting parts are at the end. But I have to reiterate – online voting isn’t the answer. As a programmer, I’d just call it stupid and dangerous.

Online voting – no. Try polling booths

Written By: - Date published: 8:10 am, October 14th, 2019 - 42 comments

Amid calls to install online voting from the technologically illiterate who are appear to be unaware of the risks, there is clear disagreement from those who do know the risks. Politicians should listen to them. While postal voting is an expensive and failing system, online voting as a system is certain to be way worse. 

How to vote in STV

Written By: - Date published: 12:15 pm, September 26th, 2019 - 21 comments

An example Single Transferable Vote ballot

It’s local voting time again, and more councils are using STV- while the Electoral Commission will tell you how to rank candidates, they won’t tell you how to vote effectively. Should you leave candidates off your list if you know what relative order they would go in?

Electoral Commission Undermining of Māori Rights

Written By: - Date published: 5:21 pm, September 17th, 2017 - 40 comments

Another election and another set of problems with the Crown’s running of the electoral process for Māori.

That 5% threshold and recent polling

Written By: - Date published: 4:09 pm, August 18th, 2017 - 87 comments

Matthew Whitehead on MMP and the threshold, along with some commentary on the current polling situation.

The MP that Clutha-Southland could have had

Written By: - Date published: 7:04 am, June 30th, 2017 - 33 comments

The debarclay rumbles on. The Nat’s deploy the Game of Hats gambit. The vultures circle over the remains of Todd B in Clutha-Southland while his zombie vote is exploited to squeak through legislation. It could all have been so very different if the electorate had chosen the best candidate in 2014. Their loss is Invercargill’s gain – Liz Craig in 2017!

NRT: A constitutional change

Written By: - Date published: 3:01 pm, May 26th, 2017 - 8 comments

I/S at No Right Turn writes: “The Court has ruled that the High Court was right to declare that National’s 2010 prisoner voting restrictions (the ones which were so shabby and shoddily passed that they brought Parliament into disrepute) were inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act“

Boots Theory: Flag referendum 1

Written By: - Date published: 1:00 pm, November 24th, 2015 - 35 comments

What to do with these ballot papers that just arrived in the mail?

Check you are enrolled – last chance

Written By: - Date published: 1:13 pm, September 19th, 2014 - 9 comments

You can’t enrol to vote tomorrow. If you haven’t early voted, don’t have a vote pack, and if you don’t show up on the electronic roll and you are in anyway unsure, then your best bet is to head to your local post shop, and fill in and give them an enrolment form – BEFORE the post shop closes.

Questions

Written By: - Date published: 12:16 pm, August 24th, 2014 - 38 comments

A few simple questions on democracy.

NZ First conference – the kingmakers?

Written By: - Date published: 4:48 pm, July 15th, 2014 - 50 comments

It looks like I’ll be able to head to the NZ First conference at Alexandra Park racecourse on the weekend as media. This election the position of NZ First party members is probably going to be crucial for any coalition that forms. In this rather long post I explain my (and other peoples) thinking on possible coalition results for National after the election. They aren’t good because they really depend on a political group that National has been denigrating for quite a while.

Polity: Armstrong on Labour, turnout, MMP

Written By: - Date published: 11:36 am, July 15th, 2014 - 28 comments

Over the weekend John Armstrong had a column about youth voter turnout in the upcoming election. Much of the material was familiar – young people don’t vote so much – nobody talks their language, yo! – parties are Trying Very Hard, but they are also old fuddy-duddies – and so on. He then blamed much of it on a perceived trend toward centrist politics under MPP. But runs directly-if-casually contrary to at least two large research programmes in political science.

Where and how to vote

Written By: - Date published: 11:37 pm, November 25th, 2011 - Comments Off on Where and how to vote

Regardless of who you decide to vote for, it’s really important that you do exercise your democratic duty to vote. Here’s a link to the Electoral Commission site that gives information on voting booth locations, how to make a vote, the people and parties you can vote for in your area, and answers to any […]

Jessica Alba says “Declare Yourself”

Written By: - Date published: 4:26 pm, September 16th, 2008 - 12 comments

Some commentators have pondered whether an election in NZ so close to the election in the States should be a concern for Labour. Helen Clark has already said: “… Obviously we all take a great interest in the American election but our election is what determines our immediate future”. But there’s also an upside in […]