Vote smart is a series of posts on tactical voting for people who support certain parties or live in certain electorates to help you maximise your vote. Today, the Progressives and Wigram:
Since the last election, the Progressives have failed to register in half the Roy Morgan polls and never broken 1%. For a party to get more than one seat in Parliament, it needs to win around 1.6% of the vote as well as an electorate seat. The Progressives show no signs of reaching 1.6%. On the other hand, Jim Anderton’s seat of Wigram seems safe. So, no realistic outcome has the Progressives getting more or fewer than one seat in Parliament.
That means that if you’re a Progressive voter the smart thing to do is to give your party vote to a different left-wing party, one that can benefit from it. Giving it to the Progressives is not going to help change the outcome for the Progressives. But you can help the Greens or Labour get another seat. Assuming Jim wins Wigram, it’s a far better result for the Left if the Progs get 0.2% if they get 1.4%. Both scenarios see one Progressive MP but the second sees 1.2% of the vote wasted that could have won more seats for other Left parties.
On the flipside, if you are a Green or Labour supporter living in Wigram, give your candidate vote to Jim to ensure he wins the seat. He effectively becomes a ‘free’ seat fo the Left if he wins Wigram while not taking a proportionate number of party votes. You are doing your party a favour if you help him win.
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