Commenting on election day? Fine

BESIDES working most of the day and running around after the kids, I made the trip to the polling booth on Saturday afternoon. My boys found it fascinating that they were allowed to come along. My eldest urged me to vote for Phil Goff while the little man insisted I had to vote for John Key.

We spoke about what the Prime Minister does, what happens in Parliament, and about all that is involved when it comes to elections. They were both keen to know who I voted for, but I explained that voting was personal. They were a little annoyed about it but they just had to have peace with the fact that I kept that information to myself.

I have an interest in politics but I'm not a fan of leader debates and political campaigning. Most of it bores me to tears. I guess I usually lean left-to-centre but, like with previous elections, I was undecided until a few days before election day.

To be able to make a better informed decision, I looked up the details on the referendum on elections.org.nz. That gave me some insight into MMP. The site has a great page on the history of voting in New Zealand and with that, I learned something new.

I looked up some of the political party websites in the lead-up to voting day, and the coverage in the Bay of Plenty Times was also helpful for someone as undecided as I was. To make things even clearer, and clarity was needed, I followed most of the live chats with politicians on our website bayofplentytimes.co.nz.

It took me a while, but eventually I made up my mind on where to place the ticks.

I read on Monday that a million eligible New Zealanders did not bother to vote in Saturday's election, producing the lowest turnout in percentage terms in 120 years.

I have never been a strong supporter of any party and it always takes me ages to weigh up the different viewpoints, but I have been brought up with the notion that not voting is not an option.

One rule was clear, and that was that no campaigning whatsoever was allowed on election day, which included Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites. Anyone breaking the rules could face a hefty fine.

There was a bit of controversy over this on our Facebook page.

Kristy Smith said: "Hmmm, no freedom of speech I take it? I find this to be so beyond ridiculous. We have to listen to these politicians spouting out their 'promises' for months but on Election Day we cant talk about it or make a post. I can understand the political parties not campaigning, but a regular Joe can't say his opinion? Absurd!"

Michelle Sefton had a different view: "I agree whole heartedly! My Facebook is overrun at the moment by young folk spouting off about this party or that party and when you read it, you soon realise they have no clue what they are even saying! Back in our day you told no-one who you voted for, it's yours to know alone and you're not swaying anyone to make their decision that way. The law is the law, so fine them if need be. Thanks BOP Times for bringing this to their attention," she said.

Most candidates shut their social media pages down completely, and some worried about hackers.

Greens candidate for Tauranga Ian McLean said the prominence of social media in 2011 would make things interesting on election day.

He said while most Green Party members and supporters would do exactly what they should and chose not get involved in the political process, there would always be those who chose to "put their head up".

He also expressed his worries about email, Facebook or Twitter accounts being hacked and said social media sites were the latest version of people stealing other party's signs during the campaign and putting them up illegally on election day.

The Electoral Commission says the rules reflect the long-standing feature of New Zealand electoral law that voters should be free from interference and influence on election day.

Because it was important enough to make sure we stuck to these rules, I spent all day keeping an eye on the paper's social media pages and moderating comments made to stories on our website. Nobody was out of line.

It's fair enough to prevent candidates from posting comments on the day, but I'm not too sure about fining ordinary people.

Would it really influence your choice if a Facebook friend puts "Go Nats" as a status update? I really don't see the harm in it.