Via DPF: Che Tibby suggests left-supporters vote tactically in Tauranga:
How this works is that you give your candidate to the blue team, and your party vote to the red team. Simple. Shameful. But simple. And then it's bye bye Whinny while helping the commies get back into power.
I think NZ First will make the threshhold, so I don't think it will mean "bye bye Whinny" - but it will hurt his feelings. And I think that's a goal well worth pursuing.
I can also think of a few other places left supporters might want to vote tactically:
- for Jim Anderton (Progressive) in Wigram, to ensure that his party gets into Parliament (ideally bringing at least one other MP with him);
- for Jeanette Fitzsimons in Coromandel, to provide an electorate backstop for the Greens;
- for Richard Worth (National) in Epsom, to lock out Rodney. As he says, a vote for Richard Worth equals Richard Worth. A vote for Rodney equals Rodney plus friends plus Richard Worth - all of whom would support a right-wing rather than left-wing government. Casting an electorate vote for Richard Worth improves Labour's chances of forming a government - which ought to make it a no-brainer.
These are electorate votes only, of course. If you're on the left, then you should obviously cast your party vote (the important one) for whichever part of the red team you're most comfortable with.
Anon: I'm not sure how that's a "tactical" vote. It will only change the outcome for Nelson; the overall outcome won't be changed either way.
ReplyDeleteI had a huge argument with Peter Aimer in a lecture once about how splitting your vote was by definition about using one of your votes against your actual preference. (i hope that makes sense) He maintained that not voting for the same person and same party meant that you were in some way not voting for what you truly wanted. It was a very strange fight, given that these days tactical voting seems rife amongst the political elite and in marginal electorates.
ReplyDeletebit boring though for those of us living in safe red or blue seats with no real alternatives to vote for :-(
Span: I think the important thing is to recognise the general irrelevance of the electorate vote; it can only affect the overall outcome in certain circumstances - namely, helping a party escape the threshhold. Otherwise, its only importance is in choosing the faces - not which parties get to form a government.
ReplyDeleteI'm in a safe Labour seat - IMHO voting for the Greens as a party vote here is 'tactical voting' because it helps them make the 5% and makes it more likely I'll get the Labour govt I want rather than the National one I don't - I think this is tactical voting (a different sort - but I'm certainly not strictly "voting against what I truly want")
ReplyDeleteOf course, you could always register as an elector in a 'tactical' seat without actually living there =) hehehe
ReplyDeleteAnon1: well, it certainly helps make the difference between what you want being possible or impossible - and its a tactic I'd heartily endorse (though I think the Greens are probably safe, best to make sure of it).
ReplyDeleteAnon2: that would be electoral fraud. See s 72 of the Electoral Act 1993. If you know of anyone doing this, you should inform your local Registrar so they can be struck from the roll (see s 95)
Bren: they did it last time, and in any case I'm edgy about deliberately trying to engineer an overhang - its not how the game should be played.
ReplyDeleteThe Progressives are highly likely to be in Parliament, and so a vote for them improves the chances of getting Matt Robson back again (a decent guy and an asset to the left - excepting his attitudes on booze). I'm more concerned about those supporting the Alliance - they seem to have no visibility and no polling data - and if the race tightens up again the left may not be able to afford to lose even 1% of its vote to the threshhold. But that's obviously a decision for them to make - not me.
I find stealthily compiling a list of known right wingers of your acquaintance who for some reason or another won't be voting on election day then simply ensuring their democratic inheritance isn't wasted by voting on their behalf (for the left, of course!) is always a blow for democracy and the hard-won tight to vote.
ReplyDeleteFurther to enrolling in another electorate: a reader has reminded me that scrutiny of the roll was the key to Winston winning the disputed Hunua election in 1978; his supporters went through the roll, found a lot of people who were dead or living elsewhere, and were able to successfully challenge enough voters (and eliminate enough votes) to win.
ReplyDeleteSo: don't do it. It's not just illegal; it's also stupid and pointless.
Nandor did well in Auckland Central last time. Let's see if we can give him a good run this time, and he might seriously contest it in 2008. I think he could win.
ReplyDeleteHmmm. We seem to have a right-wing troll suggesting criminal activity to make people look bad.
ReplyDeleteFor those who weren't aware, what the above anonymous poster is suggesting is known as "Personation". It is not a "blow for democracy", but a corrupt electoral practice, and carries a penalty of a $4000 fine, a year's jail, plus a 3-year ban on voting.
I cannot stress enough that people should not even consider committing electoral fraud. It undermines the whole process, and brings democracy into disrepute. if we can't win honestly, then we don't deserve to win at all.
The converse of this is that if you *don't* live in one of the third-party contested seats then there is no downside to voting for the electorate candidate you prefer.
ReplyDeleteSo in Auckland Central, voting for Nandor isn't going to help the Nats - even if Pansy Wong gets elected, it'll be evened out when they work out the list seats.
Rich: and given the nat candidates on the list, pansy Wong being elected might not be a bad Thing. She's fairly consistently liberal, IIRC, and if she's punting a conservative, then its all good from a liberal point of view.
ReplyDeleteI really do need to do that electorate comparison sometime...
I initially thought he meant "blow for democracy" in the sense that Dan Carter's broken leg is a "blow for the All Blacks".
ReplyDeleteAnyway --- my feeling is that, all other things being equal, I would rather have an opposition backbencher for my electorate MP. Marian Hobbs is my electorate MP at the moment, and we haven't heard anything from her at all, until the last week or two. Maybe an MP with nothing better to do with his/her time would be able to put more effort into local matters..
In Auckland Central the last race was between Tizard, Wong and Nandor and won't be different this year. All three got into parliament anyway, so the tactical way to vote there is Green/Green (although I think Nandor would make a a better electorate MP than the invisible Minister of Auckland Affairs) - but it also highlights the utter irrelevance of electorate races. Why do we bother with them at all? If we abolished all electorate seats we could have pure proportionality and be done with silly billies like single electorate parties such as NZF and UF, and can painlessly kill off the Maori seats too in one go.
ReplyDeleteTweek: the Progressives are certainly very close to Labour, but I think they have some flavour of their own. Unfortunately, too much of it is in their drug and alcohol policies.
ReplyDeleteAs for Alliance voters feeling constantly squeezed in the long-term by close races, they simply have to grow their vote. If they can't do this, then they're going to remain disenfranchised forever.
(Alternatively, they could support a principled campaign to lower the threshhold. Who knows, if ACT goes, maybe the BRT will see that as a way of getting their stooges back into Parliament).
Craig: that is essentially what tactical voting is all about - except that it takes a rather wider view of interests. Of course, there'd be less of an incentive if we didn't have this bloody threshhold - but even under FPP there is significant scope for tactical voting (witness the LibDems and the decapitation of the Conservatives in the UK).
ReplyDeleteAs for our troll, I'm simply suspicious. As for the other poster, I was pointedly ignoring their insult - which is often the best way of dealing with that sort of crap.
I would prefer not to ban anonymous comments; I would also prefer not to have to police my comment section. And I'd prefer not to threaten to shut things down, because as Span noted a while ago, the sewer seems to be trying to wage a conscious campaign of disruption against comments on left-wing blogs, and I'd rather not give them the victory. Instead, I'll just stop reading comments, and leave people to wallow in the sewage.
Uroskin: well, the downside is that it would reduce MP's scope for independence, and make them even more beholden to the parties than they already are - but OTOH, how many MPs have crossed the floor without permission since we got MMP? Backbenchers just don't rebel in our party system any more...
ReplyDeleteI think it would work well if the threshhold was removed. That would remove all the distortions, and allow support for parties to rise or fall to their natural levels, and make sure that every vote counted equally.
" and leave people to wallow in the sewage."
ReplyDeleteIt'll get pretty lonely down there, with only sewerage talking to sewerage.
Dave: less unhappy than I am about the prospect of policing it. I don't want to play censor, and I would rather devote my blog-time to writing posts than cleaning up other people's deposits. If you don't like this, then you can always not read the comments. It's what I do half the time.
ReplyDeleteTweek: Matt Robson has been a strong and consistent voice on human rights, particularly on Ahmed Zaoui and prisoner compensation. Jim Anderton has that whole regional and economic development thing going, trying to find a way we can have our cake and eat it too on free trade. I think these are points of difference with Labour - though clearly not enough to be worth many people's votes (as seen in their consistent low polling). I agree that they're going to disappear when Jim retires - but as long as he stays around they're a useful vehicle and every vote for them actually counts.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the Alliance is caught in a trap by low polling, and that would-be Alliance voters are going to constantly question whether they should vote their preference, or hold their nose and vote for an imperfect vehicle which, while it will only achieve part of what they want, might at least achieve something. As Craig points out, it's a dilemma faced by every voter; it's just a lot sharper for those beneath the threshhold.
What (if anything) the Alliance can do about this is really a subject for another post (and Span has done a lot of posts about it), but the short version is that I think the particular historical circumstances which led to it having broad support has passed, and now that Labour has returned to the left (in a broad rather than purist sense), they simply have no natural constituency anymore.
Tweek: Obviously, as a liberal of the "enabling humanity" variety, I have less of a problem with Labour's position. But I'm still not voting for the fuckers.
ReplyDeleteAs for Labour voters favouring the Alliance as a coalition partner in 2002, I find it quite believable. The trick is convincing them to vote for that influence. This election has seen some positive signs that that meme is spreading, at least with the Greens; everyone knows that a vote for the Greens is a vote for a (greener, lefter) Labour-led government, and I am seeing people saying "I support Labour, but I want them to have a decent partner in government". If the Alliance survives, it should work that meme for all its worth, while at the same time trying to build a pool of core supporters like the Greens have, so it won't be such a hard choice in the future.