As permanent residents of New Zealand well over the age of 18, Shane and I had the opportunity to vote in New Zealand's elections this year. We were super excited about this, as we both cherish the tenets of participatory democracy...and we love getting those little I Voted stickers ;) But really, we were honoured (with a "u") to help shape the future of this great country.
Voting here is a pretty different experience to voting in the US. And since all of you back home are doing that this very moment (you are, right?? You better be!), I thought I'd share a bit about the system here.
Unlike in the US, voters in New Zealand do not have to be citizens. As I said, we are now classified as permanent residents. We continue to move towards citizenship with our immigration status, but we still have a few years to go before we can achieve it. In the meanwhile, we get to participate in pretty much all aspects of New Zealand life, especially paying taxes ;)
Voters cast only two votes here, one for the party and one for the electorate. The party vote determines how many of the 120 Parliament seats are allocated to each party. New Zealand has two main parties that align somewhat with the Democratic and Republican parties in the US. For NZ, those are Labour (kind of Democrat) and National (kind of Republican). But we also have smaller parties (Green, Maori) that represent ideas more to the right and left of those centrist parties. Smaller parties do win seats and often form coalitions with the main parties to govern.
The other vote we cast -- the electorate -- helps to decide the person who will represent our local geographic region in parliament. The candidate who wins the most votes wins the seat. So to summarize -- we cast one party vote and one vote for a specific candidate.
The act of voting is pretty similar to the US. -- you go to the poll and check in, you get a little sheet and tick your preferences. But the big difference I've noticed is how easy it is to vote here. It almost seems like, gasp, they WANT you to vote!
Every potential voter gets a big packet of information in the mail. This includes a detailed brochure about the voting process and a credit card-sized ID card that makes it easy for poll workers to locate your voting registration information wherever and whenever you choose to vote. And I do mean wherever and whenever.
The list of places I could go to cast a vote was astounding to me. On Election Day -- a Saturday, by the way -- I had a choice of 7 to 10 places within a short drive of our house. We chose to go to the school our kids attend, just a short walk up the street. In the 2 weeks prior to this day, I could have cast an early vote at one of hundreds of sites open for advance voting. Early voting happened in places like the local mall, the library, the community center next to the grocery store. Really convenient locations and a quick process, so much so that our friends had a laugh when we told them we were going to vote on the actual Election Day. Apparently, nobody does that here?
What else don't they do in NZ? Wait in line. With so many polling places available, we didn't have a single person ahead of us when we walked into the school. Kiwis also don't have to miss work to vote. Weekend voting and early options mean nobody has to stand in line for hours on a weekday when they should be at the office. And they definitely don't have to drive 1,000 kilometers to get to their polling place. It's just...easy.
So we cast our votes on Election Day morning and waited patiently for results to roll in. I honestly don't understand enough about the parliamentary system to follow it all. But the results were exciting. Jacinda Ardern's Labour Party won BIG TIME -- a landslide victory and a rare outright majority, meaning Labour doesn't have to form a coalition with a smaller party to lead. Our family is a big fan of Jacinda's and her government, which has led NZ so well through the coronavirus pandemic. So we were super pleased to see her hard work rewarded. :)
And now, life goes on. Jacinda's party remains in charge and is back to work dealing with issues of importance to New Zealanders -- mostly coronavirus, economic recovery, housing. Same old, same old.
And in the meantime, we're all watching the political news in the US, waiting to see what happens on election day there. I know a lot of Kiwis who are super invested in the US elections. They have questions about how it works and want to know what I think is going to happen. I'm just trying to keep my blood pressure to a reasonable level, so I politely decline most of these political discussions.
Shane and I did cast our absentee ballots a few months ago, and they have safely arrived at their Maryland polling location. Our votes have not yet been counted, which I know because I obsessively check the tracking website. I *think* Maryland counts absentee ballots after election day, though (?). So I should probably stop refreshing that webpage. ;)
So there you have it! An up-close look at how an American votes in two elections in one election year -- one done calmly and sanely in a lovely little country on the other side of the world; and one about to give me a heart attack, haha.
But however and wherever you vote, please do. It's important. And we're rooting for you from down here!
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