Trio calling for change to voting system

Three Golden Bay women want to change the way Tasman residents vote in local body elections.

Liz Thomas is leading the change, along with Victoria Davis and Penny Griffith in support.

The trio are using the Local Government Act in an attempt to change the Tasman District Council’s (TDC) electoral system from the First Past the Post system (FPP) to a Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.

They are circulating a petition requesting the council conduct a public poll on which method its voters prefer. They need 1839 signatures, which is five per cent of Tasman voters, by February 21.

If successful, the council would then need to conduct a poll asking voters their preferred choice. If it was the STV system, it would take effect in the 2019 election.

Thomas said many voters mistakenly voted for both the council election, which uses FPP, and Nelson Marlborough DHB, which uses STV, under the same voting system. As a result, there were a large number of invalid votes.

There were 1491 invalid votes in the 2016 health board election, and 59 in the council election.

She said there was ‘‘great con- fusion’’ amongst voters because the two systems where being used on ballots from the same envelope.

Eight councils around the country use the STV system.

‘‘The STV system is a fairer voting system, and provides an approximate proportional representation,’’ she said.

Under FPP, the candidate with the most votes wins. Under STV, voters rank candidates in their order of preference.

‘‘It (STV) also reduces wasted votes, because if your first vote doesn’t get enough votes, it’s transferred to your second choice.’’

TDC recently voted 8 to 6 to keep using the FPP system, but Davis said under the Local Government Act they could make the council give that decision to the voters instead.

Griffith said they had been working with council staff who were ‘‘very helpful’’.

‘‘[The petition] is not asking to vote for the change, we are just asking to have a poll which would then make the decision, and in that time we will have three months to spread more information on the voting system, so people can decide for themselves.’’

By law, local government has to hold the poll within 89 days after the petition is lodged.

The trio are also working on local places people can go to access hard copies of the petition.

For more information, or for a copy of the petition, email lizthomaspost@gmail.com.