Rangiora picks the winners

Most towns and suburbs in New Zealand vote fairly consistently. Blue areas almost always vote blue, red almost always red.

But once in a while a place stands out as a bellwether – that is, the people of that town successfully pick the government of the day over a course of decades.

The Press looked at hundreds of polling booths in the Canterbury region and found the voters at the Rangiora Borough School have correctly predicted the winning political party since 1984.

This makes the Rangiora Borough School, the chief polling station for Rangiora, the most accurate bellwether in the greater Canterbury region.

Mayor David Ayers was unsurprised to hear that the people of Rangiora were able to pick the winner every time.

‘‘Given the intelligence of the people of Rangiora and the fact that the national trends are always reflective of what happens in Rangiora, we are the leader, it’s not unusual. We’ve got very smart citizens who are up with the news and they know exactly which way to vote.’’

Ayers said it was obvious that the rest of the country could save plenty of money if they just let the people of Rangiora decide the election.

‘‘It’s quite clear we need to simply abandon the general election and just let the people of Rangiora decide. It’d be saving the country a lot of money.’’

Ayers declined to pick a winner, mentioning that he wasn’t a ‘‘gambling man.’’ So who are the people of Rangiora picking this election?

A hundred people in downtown Rangiora were asked who they were siding with this election, which represents about 6 per cent of the total 1637 votes cast at the Rangiora Borough School in 2014.

The result was definitively in Labour’s favour. The question posed was ‘‘who do you think will win the next election?’’

The results were: Labour: 57 National: 32 Greens: 2 TOP: 1 Undecided/too close to call: 8.

The Rangiora Borough School results swing wildly between elections. In the last election 868 locals voted for National and 354 for Labour. In 2002 958 voted for Labour and 553 for National.

One local summed up the sense of collective swing in the town.

‘‘I voted for National last time but I’m not sure whether to now.’’