Elections Start Today with the Sending Out of Voting Papers

Voting papers will start arriving in your letter box today, providing you with the opportunity to have your say on who will be representing you on the Wellington Regional Council for the next three years.

Regional council electoral officer Margaret Meek is encouraging people to cast their votes and decide who sits on the council.

“This is your chance to have your say and I encourage all electors to fill in and return their voting papers,” she says.

Voting papers will be delivered between Friday 20 September and Wednesday 25 September, along with a candidate profile booklet, which briefly details each of the candidates to assist in making an informed choice.

The voting papers will be printed with the regional council candidates’ names listed randomly, which means that the voting paper you receive is likely to be different from that received by any other person living in the same house as you.

Another change this year is that Wellington Regional Council has adopted the Single Transferable Voting (STV) electoral system.  STV is also used for all DHB elections and three other councils in the Wellington region – Wellington City Council, Porirua City Council and Kapiti Coast District Council.

Under STV, voters rank candidates in order of preference.  Voters may rank as many or as few candidates as they wish – there is no requirement to rank all candidates.

ENDS

© Scoop Media

Gordon Campbell:
On What John Banks And Nick Smith Have In Common

The defence that John Banks has been offering to the charges of electoral fraud – that he didn’t read the document he signed, and therefore lacked the necessary criminal intent – is a fairly standard example of political business as usual.

At a time when political power is being centralised downtown in the Executive, responsibility is being re-located to the suburbs. The Beehive seeks to operate as a blame free, shame free environment. At all times, plausible deniability is to be maintained.

Being able to put distance between the Minister and the actions/outcomes/political fallout of policy is not simply the last desperate resort of scoundrels, but the first resort of the foot soldiers in ministerial service... More>>