KEY POINTS:
Waitakere City Council wants to try the single transferable vote system for the next local body elections in 2010.
The council has previously used the first-past-the-post system (FPP), as do most New Zealand city councils.
Voters place ticks for the candidates they like up to the number of vacancies that exist.
Under STV, voters can rank candidates in order of preference.
Mayor Bob Harvey said he hoped the system would avoid confusion among Waitakere's voters, who used FPP for the council elections yet STV for electing their representatives on the Waitemata District Health Board.
He said STV would reduce "wasted votes", which do not help to elect a candidate.
The council will hold a poll on the decision if more than 5 per cent of voters are against it.
At last October's election, only 37.6 per cent of the city's 126,000 voters returned voting papers for mayor, council and community boards.
