Election17: What on earth is my second vote for?

Is MMP slightly mysterious to you with its multiple thresholds, overhangs and second votes? We can help that, unless we just confuse you more.

Why do we have this weird voting system?

I thought you’d never ask. It’s as simple as 1-2-3.

1. Donald Trump lost (by five million votes), but got to be president anyway.

2. That kind of thing used to happen in New Zealand too.

3. It can’t anymore, because… MMP.

Surely the winner is always the winner. How stupid do I look?

No, really. In both 1978 and 1981 the party with fewer votes ran New Zealand. It was pretty unfair – so we changed it (eventually).

Yay us.

Yes, yes, take a bow. The credit is obviously all yours.

I know. What did I pick?

MMP.

I feel let down. Unless it stands for Mega-Marauding-Politicos?

Mixed member proportional.

Oh.

MMP is proportional, so however many votes each party gets in the election is mirrored in Parliament. But not every vote – only party votes.

But isn’t every vote for a party?

God, no. That would be easy.

So every vote is for a person? 'Jacinda versus Billy'?

Even wronger.

I give up, that’s all I had.

First - everyone gets two votes.

Generous but weird.

Pay attention, this is the vital bit. The two votes are different. You get:

• One (1) electorate vote - for a person to represent your local area.
• One (1) party vote - for the party you want to be the government.

So, twice the power!

Not really. One is useful, the other is powerful.

The vote that affects the election outcome is the party vote. Party vote.

You can use the electorate (local) vote however you like - vote for someone you like or trust, even if they’re from a different party to the one you want to win the election.

But the party vote – that’s for the party you want to win the election. The party you care about. The party you hope will be part of, or leading, the government.

That’s easy. Why does anyone get confused?

Because of this next bit. 

I warn you to leave now and stay blissfully unconfused. This next bit isn’t necessary to know how to vote.

Still here.

Take a breath then. To get into Parliament, a political party has to achieve one of two thresholds.

First - if a party wins five percent or more of the total party vote, they get that same percentage of MPs.

So if they got exactly five percent of the party vote they would get six MPs?

Yes, exactly. Five percent of the total 120 MPs is six MPs. Good maths.

Woohoo. Achievement unlocked!  And the other way?

If a party win any electorate, they get that electorate MP, and they get extra MPs to match whatever percentage they got of the party vote.

Plus that MP?

No, including that MP. So if ACT won the Epsom electorate, and also got, say, 1.8 percent of the party vote, they would get two MPs - including the MP for Epsom.

Because 1.8 percent of 120 MPs is two?

Exactly. Ultimately, each party’s proportion of all of the MPs in Parliament is exactly the same as their percentage of the party vote.

And who would that second MP be?

Each party publishes a list of wannabe MPs that will be used to top up its proportion of the party vote, after accounting for its electorate MPs. That’s what they call the party lists.

But what if they won an electorate but only 0.2 percent of the party vote, and so didn’t deserve any MPs based on percentage?

You just described Peter Dunne’s United Future party result in the 2014 election.

They still get the local MP. But Parliament gets resized to 121 MPs to try to work around that extra MP. It’s called an ‘overhang’.

Which must make it harder to form a government, right?

Yes, because then you need 62 MPs to get a majority rather than the normal 61, which favours the coalition the overhang MP goes along with.

But what if your party doesn’t win any electorates, but gets 4.9 percent of the party vote?

So close, but they fail to get any MPs.

No wonder people get confused. What would happen to their 4.9 percent?

Good question. The percentage of party votes that doesn’t lead to MPs is called the wasted vote. It gets shared out among the successful parties in proportion to their own vote win.

So if six percent of party votes were ‘wasted’, and National got, say, 47 percent of the party vote, they would get given another three percent and get topped up to 50 percent?

More or less. You really have this maths thing down.

Thank you. I am now also fully confused.

Good. My work here is done. But you really don’t need to know all that detailed stuff to vote. Just remember, the party vote is the important one. Use it well, Grasshopper.

OK, but who should I vote for?

Aaah. You want help deciding? We can help with that too.