After four MMP elections, the public have a better understanding of how the system works but still one third do not know the party vote is the most important in determining the make-up of Parliament.
The Electoral Commission today released the latest in its ongoing survey of MMP knowledge showing the highest level of understanding since the first MMP election in 1996.
Commission chief executive Helena Catt said it knew from past experience that levels of knowledge would keep increasing and peak on election day.
The results were pleasing in that this election could be the one taken with the highest levels of understanding since MMP was introduced, she said.
In the survey of 3000 potential voters, 67 percent correctly identified the party vote as more important than the electorate vote in deciding the numbers of MPs each party gets.
"Equally pleasing was finding that only a fifth think that MMP's hard to understand, a significant shift from the quarter saying the same thing last year," Dr Catt said.
Pacific people's understanding of MMP also improved by 14 percentage points with 70 percent choosing the party vote as more significant compared to 69 percent of New Zealand Europeans.
Despite this Pacific people were less likely to say they understood MMP than Europeans - 41 percent compared to 60 percent.
The number of people who knew that to get into Parliament a party had to win an electorate seat or 5 percent of the vote was up 7 percentage points to 34 percent.
Those who correctly identified the 5 percent threshold, but did not mention the electorate seat meant in total 53 percent were either correct or close to getting it right.
There was also an indication that non-voting was more about disengagement from politics than dissatisfaction, with non-voters less likely to have an opinion on questions than voters.
Confidence in the management of elections also increased 5 percentage points to 85 percent.
Two-thirds of 18-24 year olds believed that voting made a difference, but high proportions felt they lacked political knowledge.
