22 July 2002

Website Features Virtual Election Calculator

The Electoral Commission has designed a special “Virtual Election Result Calculator” on the electoral website, www.elections.org.nz that allows people to calculate the number of seats each political party can gain in the coming election based on the range of figures entered by the person concerned.

Web surfers need simply type in the percentage of Party Votes or numbers of Party Votes they think each party will get and the interactive site will calculate the make-up of the resulting Parliament using the Sainte-Laguë mathematical formula used by the New Zealand electoral system to determine list seats.

The Commission says the calculator device, that can be found on the website under “Publications and Resources”, will be useful for people wanting to know how the proportional voting system works as well as for pollsters and political parties wanting to translate their research data into seat numbers in Parliament.

By clicking on the correct link people will also be able to see the detailed workings behind the result and access a glossary that provides an explanation of many of the terms used.

The website also features several educational resources about the electoral system for students.

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