"If you don’t rate them, don’t rank them."
Deciding how to rank candidates under the single transferable vote (STV) system is one of the most confusing aspects of voting this way for many people, but it does not have to be.
"It is important to remember that under STV, you can vote for as many, or as few people as you like — just decide who you want to vote for and rank them," Prof Hayward said.
"But remember, if you put a number beside somebody’s name, you are technically voting for them — even if that number is 54.
"So, if you really don’t want to give someone your support, don’t rank them."
Voters are considering who to give their support to among the 16 people standing for the Dunedin mayoralty and 54 standing for Dunedin City Council, as well as electing councillors to the Otago Regional Council and community boards for some residents.
Prof Hayward said Dunedin voters could be confident the use of the STV system meant the city’s election results for both the DCC and the ORC reflected the wishes of the people with a high degree of accuracy.
Dunedin has used the STV system since 2005, and the ORC has switched to STV for this election.
There are 15 councils around New Zealand which use the system.
Under the STV system, voters were casting a single vote, but were doing so by ranking candidates in order of preference — starting with "1, 2, 3, 4" and continuing as far down the list as they wished, Prof Hayward said.
"It is not possible to vote strategically under STV, so no need to worry about that.
"The thing STV does really well is minimise the wasted votes.
"To win the mayoralty, the winning candidate will have to get more than 50% of the valid votes.
"And once all the votes are counted, you can be confident that the people who got elected broadly reflect the preferences of the community."
It was important voters made the effort to find out as much as possible about the candidates before casting their votes, Prof Hayward said.
This could involve reading widely about candidates, viewing the videos on the DCC website, listening to election candidate podcasts on OAR FM, or going along to meet-the-candidates events.
"You can’t go past meet-the-candidates events for really getting to know what they think on a variety of topics."
She was hoping for a strong voter turnout in this year’s local body elections, given recent high profile issues such as the Water Done Well reforms, cycleways, parking and the new Dunedin hospital.
Voting Papers
More than 94,000 voting papers will arrive in the mailboxes of Dunedin voters in the next two weeks, ready for voters to make their choices ahead of election day, October 11.
Those posting back their voting papers should have them in the post before October 7, so they arrive on time, or papers can be dropped in orange voting bins across the city.
For those not on the electoral roll, special votes can be made in person at the Civic Centre in the Octagon from now until Friday, October 10. The centre is open on weekdays from 8.30am-5pm, and on October 11, from 8.30am-noon.
