Election 2023 - Are "wasted votes" really wasted?
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Show Notes
It’s General Election time – and because we operate under an MMP mixed member proportional voting system, the concept of the “wasted vote” always comes up in discussion. Generally the statement is thrown around, something along the lines of, “If your vote is wasted, it goes to another party” – “Another party benefits”. But is this true? We explain how the wasted vote phenomenon works in practice – based on what happened in the General Election in 2020.
It still comes back to you though. You have a choice. They may call it a ‘wasted vote” but it’s not wasted if your goal is to send a message to both the party and to the public in general that you support the principles and policies of that party – even if they don’t get in – this time. On the other hand, you may decide that you don’t want the major parties to get extra seats because of wasted votes – as happened in 2020.
But at least you’ll now know how the system works.