#Aotearoa #NewZealand let’s permanent residents vote. This was my first election since moving here. Very laid back experience. They don’t check your id nor do the require a signature but they do double check the records and have everything recorded on paper.

This is my first time voting in a proportional representation system. You vote both for a party list and for a single first pass the post representative. I like it except I wish the direct voting was ranked choice. Right now for Wellington Central there’s a tight three way race between Labour, the Green Party, and National (the main centre right party). Clearly the vast majority of people in Wellington want labour or the greens, who are in coalition anyway, and not National.

Before electoral reform in 1996 this kind of problem came up all the time just like happens today in Canada, and the UK. The American solution is to just make every electoral district gerrymandered so it’s not competitive. Most of the time when I voted in the US the Republicans didn’t bother to even name a candidate. The winner has had between 65% to over 80% of the vote. Why bother?

Anyway people actually don’t know what the results of this election in NZ will be. Seems likely that there will be an unstable center right coalition.