That is one piece of advice from University of Otago politics professor Janine Hayward about voting in council elections under STV.
The Dunedin City Council and Otago Regional Council are both using the STV electoral system this election.
The Otago Daily Times asked Prof Hayward to explain the system and how voters might best use it.
What is STV?
The single transferable vote (STV) is a "proportional" voting system, which means it does a good job of translating what voters want into who gets elected.
The outcome of STV elections reflects the way the community voted.
To vote using STV, you rank the candidates on the voting paper, 1 – 2 – 3, etc, starting with the person you most want to vote for.
You can rank as many or as few candidates as you want to. You do not need to rank all candidates.
What are its main advantages and disadvantages?
STV was designed to fix the problems caused by the first-past-the-post (FPP) voting system.
FPP does a very poor job of translating the way people vote into who gets elected.
The problem with FPP is that it wastes votes in two ways. Votes are wasted on people who get lots more votes than they needed to get elected and other votes are wasted on candidates who don’t get enough votes to get elected.
That means that in FPP elections, many people don’t elect anyone to represent them while other people elect lots of people to represent them.
STV fixes that problem and reduces wasted votes so that most people who vote in an STV election help to elect at least one representative to council to represent them.
What is your top tip for voting under STV?
Rank the candidates in order of your preference, 1 – 2 – 3, etc.
Vote honestly (there is no need for tricky strategies).
You don’t need to rank everyone — if you don’t rate them, don’t rank them!
You do NOT need to rank all candidates.
Do you believe the system is complicated?
STV is a simple way for voters to cast a vote (rank the candidates in order of preference, 1 – 2 – 3, etc). The way votes are counted is complicated, so we use a computer to ensure that counting votes is fast and accurate.
How would you explain the way votes are redistributed among candidates?
STV is a single vote thatcan transfer according to your own ranking on your ballot paper.
If your first vote "1" is for someone who didn’t need it or didn’t get elected (because they were really popular or really unpopular), your vote (or a proportion of your vote) can transfer to your next preference, "2". It’s like an insurance policy to make sure as many people as possible have the chance to elect someone to represent them in council.
What are three myths about STV and how would you bust them?
Myth 1 — Voters find STV confusing.
Once STV is explained to voters (rank candidates in order of preference, 1 – 2 – 3, etc), people generally find it an easy way to vote. Voting papers show the vast majority of voters use STV correctly.
Myth 2 — voters can’t control where their votes are transferred under STV.
Votes only transfer according to the order of preference the voter gives on their ballot paper. Nothing else can influence the transfer of votes during the vote-counting process.
Myth 3 –– STV helps to elect certain types of candidates.
Voters decide who gets elected, not the STV electoral system. STV does a very good of translating what voters want into who gets elected, but the electoral system cannot produce an election result that the voters didn’t vote for.
What sort of council does STV usually deliver?
STV delivers a council that reflects the way the community voted.
Regardless of whether communities vote for left-wing or right-wing candidates, or something else entirely, that will be reflected in the result. — Allied Media
