STV reduces vote from 46% to 36%

I am actually a fan of STV in some circumstances.  For Mayoral elections I think it works well for example.  But my gut reaction for the last two health board elections has been that it discourages people from voting.  I mean even a political junkie like me groans at trying to rank 30 candidates from 1 to 30.  It’s meaningless, arbitrary and time consuming.

So it is no surprise to read on Stuff an NZPA story that last elections 100,000 ballots were disqualified as people did not use STV correctly, and a further 110,000 were left blank. This means only 36% of NZers cast a valid vote.

I’m not convinced we should have DHB elections at all, but if we are they should be meaningful.