Mmm. If we took democracy seriously we would ensure that schools took election of student representatives onto school boards seriously, require all schools to have elected student councils, implement school elections such as they have in Norway (before general elections and with secondary schools organising meet-the-candidate meetings with geneneral election candidate, and giving media publicity to the results), and pre-registration of 17 year olds through schools.
Not to forget Collins unilaterally rejecting various electoral reform recommendations (in 2016-2017?) without first asking the then-opposition parties for their views. Or are my recall powers on the blink?
The reality is Labour abandoned consultation as soon as it got an absolute majority
The coalition are entitled to take the situation back to where it was then reach agreement with Labour that if they wish to make major changes after they next win that will last there will have to be consultation
Just a general comment/trivia: the Wellington central temporary EC office in Molesworth St was a total mess, with managers not knowing what they were supposed to do. I got hired three times for three different jobs, each for the same three weeks leading up to the election, but never actually started working. On the fourth try for a job, I managed to secure an admin role but I left after one shift. The place was chaotic, with smug managers (many of them without experience) making ridiculous decisions and loud statements that made me feel sick. Some managers were also openly biased, criticising the National and ACT parties in front of staff - in the office where I was working the "team leader" was urging staff not to vote for the National Party & actively encouraging mockery of ACT and NP candidates. That's when I knew not to go back - it was obvious where these stupid people's heads were at - it was just disturbing.
I guess the obvious conclusions are that; where humans are working under pressure, and where there are budgetary constraints , errors will occur. I am all for making it easy to vote, but I believe that if you haven’t enrolled by election day then effectively you have disqualified yourself from voting. It is of grave concern to me that the government of the day decides what funding is allocated for the election cycle. This seems a VERY disturbing state of affairs, and rather like MP’s aren’t allowed to set their own salaries and have an independent body to arbitrate wage rises, then so too should budgetary issues for an election be set independently from government. A couple of other issues that need to be considered are firstly, it really should be a legal requirement to vote, punishable by a hefty fine for non compliance, and second, since we now have voting allowed before election day then I believe all hustings, advertising and all media should be removed from influencing the public as soon as voting is allowed. The interference of media commentary in the run up to election day proper has a massive impact on ‘floating voters’ and this is an undue interference in the democratic process.
The failure of the Labour/Greens government to consult on the unilateral changes to electoral law and procedures is consistent with their implementation of constitutional changes (He Puapua) without any attempt to work with the then opposition. In other words it was a feature, not a bug. The Labour/Green government deliberately broke the system to use Chris Trotter’s words in a recent opinion piece. If the coalition uses that as an invitation to make unilateral changes of their own it will be understandable.
What happened to the Catalyst Tabulator machines that have been 'in use' in NZ since 2003? Is that what Podesta was referring to in 2020 when he said on Newshub "the NZ elections are ripe for the hacking'? How can one 'hack' a supposed hand counting system? I smell a rat here.
Mmm. If we took democracy seriously we would ensure that schools took election of student representatives onto school boards seriously, require all schools to have elected student councils, implement school elections such as they have in Norway (before general elections and with secondary schools organising meet-the-candidate meetings with geneneral election candidate, and giving media publicity to the results), and pre-registration of 17 year olds through schools.
What about compulsory voting?
Not to forget Collins unilaterally rejecting various electoral reform recommendations (in 2016-2017?) without first asking the then-opposition parties for their views. Or are my recall powers on the blink?
So a return to the longtime status quo re election day enrolling would be Trumpian says Swarbrick
The reality is Labour abandoned consultation as soon as it got an absolute majority
The coalition are entitled to take the situation back to where it was then reach agreement with Labour that if they wish to make major changes after they next win that will last there will have to be consultation
Just a general comment/trivia: the Wellington central temporary EC office in Molesworth St was a total mess, with managers not knowing what they were supposed to do. I got hired three times for three different jobs, each for the same three weeks leading up to the election, but never actually started working. On the fourth try for a job, I managed to secure an admin role but I left after one shift. The place was chaotic, with smug managers (many of them without experience) making ridiculous decisions and loud statements that made me feel sick. Some managers were also openly biased, criticising the National and ACT parties in front of staff - in the office where I was working the "team leader" was urging staff not to vote for the National Party & actively encouraging mockery of ACT and NP candidates. That's when I knew not to go back - it was obvious where these stupid people's heads were at - it was just disturbing.
I guess the obvious conclusions are that; where humans are working under pressure, and where there are budgetary constraints , errors will occur. I am all for making it easy to vote, but I believe that if you haven’t enrolled by election day then effectively you have disqualified yourself from voting. It is of grave concern to me that the government of the day decides what funding is allocated for the election cycle. This seems a VERY disturbing state of affairs, and rather like MP’s aren’t allowed to set their own salaries and have an independent body to arbitrate wage rises, then so too should budgetary issues for an election be set independently from government. A couple of other issues that need to be considered are firstly, it really should be a legal requirement to vote, punishable by a hefty fine for non compliance, and second, since we now have voting allowed before election day then I believe all hustings, advertising and all media should be removed from influencing the public as soon as voting is allowed. The interference of media commentary in the run up to election day proper has a massive impact on ‘floating voters’ and this is an undue interference in the democratic process.
The failure of the Labour/Greens government to consult on the unilateral changes to electoral law and procedures is consistent with their implementation of constitutional changes (He Puapua) without any attempt to work with the then opposition. In other words it was a feature, not a bug. The Labour/Green government deliberately broke the system to use Chris Trotter’s words in a recent opinion piece. If the coalition uses that as an invitation to make unilateral changes of their own it will be understandable.
What happened to the Catalyst Tabulator machines that have been 'in use' in NZ since 2003? Is that what Podesta was referring to in 2020 when he said on Newshub "the NZ elections are ripe for the hacking'? How can one 'hack' a supposed hand counting system? I smell a rat here.