Party spending in 2011
The Electoral Commission has released the party spending returns for the 2011 election. I have done a table of them, and the votes they got and hence the cost per vote.
| Party | Party Vote Expenditure | Votes | Expend per Vote |
| Conservative | $1,878,337.22 | 59,237 | $ 31.71 |
| ACT | $617,035.18 | 23,889 | $ 25.83 |
| Social Credit | $34,676.21 | 1,714 | $ 20.23 |
| Greens | $779,618.38 | 247,372 | $ 3.15 |
| Labour | $1,789,151.95 | 614,937 | $ 2.91 |
| Mana | $60,082.31 | 24,168 | $ 2.49 |
| Māori Party | $72,172.56 | 31,982 | $ 2.26 |
| National | $2,321,216.06 | 1,058,636 | $ 2.19 |
| United Future | $27,718.87 | 13,443 | $ 2.06 |
| Alliance | $2,407.16 | 1,209 | $ 1.99 |
| Libertarianz | $2,759.55 | 1,595 | $ 1.73 |
| NZ First | $155,902.86 | 147,544 | $ 1.06 |
| ALCP | $4,003.00 | 11,738 | $ 0.34 |
The Conservatives spent a massive $31.71 per vote. They actually spent more money than Labour, yet still only got 2.7%. This is proof once again that the impact of money on elections is quite modest.
ACT spent 79% of what the Greens did, yet got just 10% of their vote. Also Social Credit spent a large $20.23 per vote.
Of the two big parties, Labour spent more per vote – $2.91 vs $2.19 for National.
The ALCP were the most cost effective getting a vote for every 34c, followed by NZ First who spent $1.06 per vote.
Note that this is just what the party spent on their party vote campaign. I’ll also do an analysis at some stage which includes the taxpayer funded broadcasting allocation.
Interesting that no party spent up to their limit. National spent up to 88% of their limit, the Conservatives up to 79% and Labour 64%.