Media release

2 October 2007

Read voting documents carefully, voters urged

Voters in the local elections are being reminded to read their voting documents’ instructions carefully before casting their votes.

Department of Internal Affairs manager of Local Government Services, Donald Riezebos, says all electors will be using a mixture of Single Transferable Voting (STV) and First Past the Post (FPP), and it’s important for them to read the instructions carefully.

“The first week of voting has finished and there is a steady stream of documents being received by electoral officers. As voters will be using two different voting systems, it’s important they read the instructions carefully.”

All District Health Boards and eight councils are using STV, while the remaining councils are using FPP.

“With the more familiar FPP, voters tick the candidates they support, while under STV they use numbers to indicate their preference.

“It’s easy to vote using STV. Voters simply use numbers to rank candidates in order of preference. You write the number ‘1’ next to your favourite candidate, a ‘2’ next to your second choice, a ‘3’ next to your third choice, and so on.”

With the first week of voting over there is less than two weeks left for people to return their voting documents. Votes must be received by electoral officers by noon on Saturday 13 October. If voters are returning their voting documents on the last Friday or Saturday, it is best to hand deliver them rather than post them.

The results of the FPP elections are expected to be released through the afternoon and evening on Saturday, with the preliminary results of most of the STV elections expected to be available by midday on Sunday 14 October.

Information on STV, including an animation showing how the votes are counted, is available in the website www.stv.govt.nz.

Ends

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