Saturday 1 November 2008

Ah, democracy

Last weekend we joined a number of other Kiwis in New Zealand House, ticked a bit of paper, and deposited it into a big box to be sent homeward bound for counting. We also took some photos to demonstrate to those of you back home that we may be on the other side of the world, but voting in the New Zealand election has an orange theme the world over. Now, all that's left for us to do is get up at 5am next Saturday and try and find something online to watch the results coming through, and to rustle up some other kiwis for a celebration/commiseration lunch afterward. Yay!
Because we are resident in London, we ex-pats are enrolled in the last NZ electorate we resided in. Curious, Tane asked the electoral people what electorate most people voting at NZ House are enrolled in. Apparently, more New Zealanders move to London from our own Wellington Central any other electorate in the country, so more special votes are cast in London for there than anywhere else. That got me wondering - what electorate in NZ has the fewest number of special votes cast for it? I have no idea how to find out but would be very curious. Also, with the obvious overseas examples, I wonder what NZ electorate has the most special votes cast within it? My guess would be Dunedin North, my old electorate that is also famous for having the highest percentage of people in New Zealand identifying themselves as "Jedi" on the 2001 census. Does anyone know the answers? Does anyone else care?

4 comments:

Julie said...

Being the numbers geek that I am (and queen procrastinator) I couldn't resist this - if you want to know the answers then check out the link below. Basically, Auckland Central had the highest number of NZ special votes, while Wellington Central had the highest number of Overseas votes, while Mangere had the lowest number of Overseas votes.

:-)

http://2005.electionresults.govt.nz/e9/html/e9_part10_1.html

Julie said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Julie said...

P.S. Great to hear you guys voted! We've still got to wait a few more days...oh, the excitment! :-p I can't wait until all this election stuff is over, then we can hear about other things on the News!!

Anonymous said...

Where are you when we need a fabulous election night party to go to? London, that's where. Can't cast a special drinking game vote from there, can you?