It's time to vote - STV is the system - quick tip: don't vote for candidates you don't want
Be careful not to vote for candidates you don’t want
Wellington’s local government elections use the Single Transferrable Vote (STV) scheme.
When you vote, you decide which candidate is your first choice, second choice, third choice etc etc.
BUT you don’t have to vote for everyone.
For example, you could stop after writing 1 by your first preference.
Or … you could stop after adding 1 and 2 by your first and second choice;
Or … you could stop after writing 1, 2 and 3 beside your first, second and third preference.
Get the idea?
Why is this important?
It’s important because if you randomly vote for candidates you don’t really know or want, these votes can mount up, and sometimes that can help a less popular candidate jump up to the top or near top.
And, of course, It’s absolutely up to you how you vote and for whom!
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Here’s WCC’s explanation of STV
How to vote using STV
With STV, voting is easy.
Instead of ticking the candidates you want to vote for, with STV you number the candidates in order of preference. Put a "1" beside the candidate you like best, then a "2" beside your second choice, "3" by your third choice, and so on. You can vote for as many or as few candidates as you like.
So what does the numbering do?
By giving the number "1" to a candidate, you are saying that the candidate is your number one choice.
By ranking candidates in your preferred order - 1,2,3,4 and so on - you are also saying which other candidates you prefer:
if your top choice doesn't have enough support to get in or,
if your top choice doesn't need all the votes they received to be elected.
What else do I need to know?
For your vote to be counted there just needs to be a single '1'. After that the numbers you use must be in sequence and there must be only one of each number. If you make a mistake, your vote will be valid up to when you made the error - for example, if you miss out a "4" and just rank 1, 2, 3 and 5, only your first three preferences will be valid.
Want to see how it works?
So you can see how simple it really is to vote using STV, check out a sample STV voting form.
