by Cimino | 24 Dec 2016 | Democracy index, Election turnout, Representation, Term of office, Youth voting
Four-year term terminal for turnout long-term The need for Aotearoa to have a codified constitution is self-evident. Despite that, the initiative of constitutional lawyer Dr Andrew Butler and former prime minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer, launched in August, has failed to...
by Cimino | 11 Nov 2016 | Climate action, Election turnout, Regional governance, Youth voting
From Day One he’s wanted a better slogan than ‘the World’s most liveable city.’ For his trouble, and even before hearing what that slogan might be, Mayor Phil Goff is being rubbished and ridiculed for wanting to replace the city’s tragically generic branding, with...
by Cimino | 19 Oct 2016 | Election turnout, Youth voting
Voting in schools works, or would, if more students were involved. With participation rates so low, the only intervention proven to address the worldwide decline in voter turnout is being relegated to little more than tokenism. Of the nearly 500 intermediate and...
by Cimino | 8 Oct 2016 | Concurrent elections, Election turnout, Electoral enrolment, Youth voting
It is difficult to say which is more egregious. The three mayors yearning for the good old days of single-day polling. Or the mainstream media for being equally ill-informed and not pillorying them for their collective abject lack of evidence-based policy responses to...
by Cimino | 5 Oct 2016 | Berger for the board, Climate strategy, Election turnout, Local board, Youth voting
Tessa Berger is quoted, but not by name. In his New Zealand Herald column Political Roundup, Dr Bryce Edwards names neither Tessa, nor the national Kids Voting programme she champions. Dr Edwards suggests local government is headed towards an existential crisis,...
by Cimino | 27 Sep 2016 | Election turnout, Representation, STV
Every local-body election since its introduction, sees the same disinformation. The rock-solid single-transferable-vote system, first computerised in Aotearoa and used by her for 12 years, is set to endure its triennial onslaught of slings and arrows....