Bill voted National

Bill Ralston blogs on how he is a regular Labour voter (cancelling out his wife he claims) but that this time he did break pattern to vote National. He states:

The sad truth is my wife insists on having her own political views. I blame those who gave women the vote in the first place. For many years we each cancelled out the other’s vote come polling day.

However, I must admit this year I drifted to the view that Labour was running out steam, out of ideas and out of office. I thought it was time it went and voted accordingly. That doesn’t mean if National performs badly over the next three years it will retain my vote. A Phil Goff-led Labour government is not a scary prospect and given a good excuse I will happily revert to form.

Now, it would be very nice if everybody else who writes about politics let their readers know which way they voted, otherwise I’m going to feel very exposed indeed.

Well I voted National with both ticks. I did give some quite serious consideration to voting ACT though – to reward Rodney for his work with Winston.

I have once voted Labour – the first time I could vote. But it was 1987 and they were the better alternative.

The challenge for John Key is indeed to keep voters like Ralston. They’re urban liberals who won’t be worried by a Phil Goff led Labour, so National needs to give them reasons to stay with National.