Hamilton city and Ruapehu district councils are the only Waikato councils that will use the Single Transferrable Vote system this election. Photo / Bevan Conley
Hamilton city and Ruapehu district councils are the only Waikato councils that will use the Single Transferrable Vote system this election. Photo / Bevan Conley
Hamilton City Council will use a new voting system for this year's local election, the Single Transferable Vote (STV), only the second council in Waikato to do so.
It is believed to increase representation and add to more diversity in local government, but how does it work? First up, we will still be using postal voting with your voting papers sent to you between September 16 and 21, provided you are enrolled.
Most Waikato councils use the First Past the Post (FPP) system where voters tick the box next to their preferred candidates, but the STV system is just as easy.
With STV, instead of ticking boxes, you rank the candidates in order of your preference. So, you write "1" next to the name of your favourite candidate, "2" next to your second favourite candidate and so on. You can vote for as many or as few candidates as you like.
If you make a mistake on your voting paper and miss a number, there is no reason to panic. Your vote still counts up to where you made the error.
For example, if you miss out on ranking your fourth favourite candidate and jump straight to 5, your first three preferences will still be valid.
You don't even have to rank every candidate if you don't want to, for your vote to be counted there just needs to be a 1.
Through ranking the candidates, you are saying which other candidates you prefer in case your top choice doesn't have enough support to get in or the candidate doesn't need all the votes they received to be elected.
When it comes to counting the votes, the FFP system is straightforward: The candidate with the highest number of votes wins.
Meanwhile, counting the votes is a bit more tricky with STV.
An example of how an STV voting paper could look like. Image / stv.govt.nz
Firstly, the vote counters add up all first-preference votes for every candidate.
To get elected, candidates must reach a certain number of votes, called a quota, which depends on the number of votes and positions available.
If a candidate is elected, they keep only the proportion of the vote they need to reach the quota. The surplus part of each vote is transferred to the voter's second preference.
Then the votes are tallied again.
If another candidate reaches the quota or gets more votes than they need to be elected, the surplus part of each vote for that candidate will be transferred to the voter's third preference.
If no more candidates have enough votes to reach the quota, the candidate with the lowest amount of votes is removed and all votes for that candidate are transferred to those voters' next preferences.
This process is repeated until enough candidates are elected to fill the available positions. Through STV, surplus votes are not "wasted" but can help other candidates to get elected.
In the example above, the voter is saying: "The candidate I most want to represent me on the council is Sam Jones. He's my No.1 choice. But if he gets more votes than the quota, then I want part of my vote to be transferred to my second choice, Ngaire Smith, and maybe this will help to get her elected. Or, if Sam has so little support that he can't be elected, transfer my vote to Ngaire."
Ruapehu District Council already uses STV, but it will be Hamilton's first time this year. All other Waikato councils use the FFP system.
Who can vote?
To be eligible to vote, you must be at least 18, a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, and have lived in New Zealand for a year or more continuously at some stage.
You also need to be enrolled as a parliamentary elector at an address in the district or city where you live.
If you are not enrolled to vote yet and want to vote in this year's local election, you need to enrol by August 12. If you enrol after that, you will need to cast a special vote.
To enrol for the first time, you need to register as a parliamentary elector. You can do this online through the Electoral Commission website or call 0800 36 76 56 to arrange for forms to be sent to you directly.
Once enrolled, you should get your voting papers for the upcoming local election between September 16 and 21.
Voting day is October 8, but to make sure your vote counts, post your papers well in advance.
If you live in one area and pay rates on a property in another area, you may qualify to go on the ratepayer roll and vote in both areas.
If you are living overseas, you can still vote but have to ensure you are correctly enrolled with an overseas postal address in order to receive your voting papers. Voting papers for local elections cannot be downloaded.
If you're of Māori descent and on the Māori roll, you can vote for only the Māori ward, if your local council has established them.
If you are of Māori descent and enrol to vote for the first time, you can choose which electoral roll you want to be on, the general roll or the Māori roll.
