media release

20 SEPTEMBER 2011

Time To "Kick The Tyres" Of Voting Systems

“Representative democracy comes in lots of shapes and sizes. The voting system we use plays a big part in determining what that shape and size is. A country's voting system not only affects the kind of voting paper that we use, it also affects the outcome of elections, how parties and voters behave, and how parliament and government operate. For example, the voting system makes a big difference to whether or not one party can win an absolute majority of seats in parliament, and can govern alone, or whether coalitions are needed to form a government,” says Steve Thomas, researcher at Maxim Institute.

Maxim Institute has released an educational paper ahead of November's referendum on the voting system, which looks not just at how the different electoral systems work, but also at what sort of representation they promote, and the outcomes that they produce.

“This year is New Zealand’s chance to take a breath and look at our current MMP voting system, and four other systems on offer. Despite the dry-sounding subject matter, it’s important to think about the voting system because the one that's used makes a big difference to the type of government that New Zealand has,” says Thomas.

“It is the job of every voter to take a little bit of time to learn about the systems. There is no perfect system. There are several important criteria which we think voters should use for judging how suitable each of the voting systems is for New Zealand, but each voter will have to make trade-offs about which criteria they think are most important according to the kind of representative democracy that they want.

“These criteria are what New Zealanders need to think about when they are deciding how to vote in the referendum. Our paper is one of the tools on offer to help voters do that before 26 November.”

ENDS

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