The Voting Systems

Kāpiti Coast District Council held its elections using the single transferable vote (STV) system in 2004, 2007 and this system will be used again in the 2010 elections.

Single Transferable Vote (STV)

STV is a proportional electoral system and electors simply rank each candidate on their voting paper in order of their preference.  To be elected, candidates must achieve a quota of the eligible votes during an iterative counting process that applies voters’ 1st, then 2nd, then 3rd, etc., candidate preferences until the correct number of candidates are elected.  The Kāpiti Coast District Council is one of eight Councils to be using the STV voting system in 2010.

The STV system is compulsory for all District health board elections. 

You may wish to visit the website of the Department of Internal Affairs for a comprehensive statement on STV: http://www.stv.govt.nz/

First Past the Post (FPP)

The First Past the Post (FPP) electoral system will be used in 2010 to elect our representative on the Greater Wellington Regional Council.  Voters indicate their preferred candidate(s), and the candidate(s) that receive(s) the most votes is(are) declared the winner(s), regardless of the proportion of votes that the candidate(s) received.