Hard News: A. B. B.
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Right, Robyn, that's you and me at Coast Bar with a couple of rums and cokes or whatever. Bugger, bugger, bugger.
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I/O
Your real name is? -
Worst election ever.
Well, Banks is the clear winner, with a 10,000 vote margin.
But by my very rough guess, he's won it with a bit over a third of the votes cast, which is about 12% of Auckland's registered voters.
Arrrgggh.
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Well, Russell, there's one small ray of sunshine on the other side of the brdge - Ann Hartley came in fourth place in the Harbour Ward (which returns five councillors) so she's out of Parliament - not a great loss.
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Right, Robyn, that's you and me at Coast Bar with a couple of rums and cokes or whatever. Bugger, bugger, bugger.
There are sorrows and they are demanding to be drowned. I think a Jim Beam and Coke is appropriate to match our new petrolhead mayor.
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What is it with you Aucklanders,
When did you last have a mayor who was not a nutbar and now you are recycling the worst of them -
If John Banks is the answer, what the hell is Auckland's question?
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But by my very rough guess, he's won it with a bit over a third of the votes cast, which is about 12% of Auckland's registered voters.
Quite true, and if Mark Burton wants to promote the necessary legislative changes so Mayors have to secure an absolute majority of registered voters the electorate (which would require compulsory voting, I guess, and perhaps even run-offs)... then the best of British to him.
But I do think that's really missing the point.
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Make up, lights, camera ... Mr Laws we're ready for your close up.
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Quite true, and if Mark Burton wants to promote the necessary legislative changes so Mayors have to secure an absolute majority of registered voters the electorate (which would require compulsory voting, I guess, and perhaps even run-offs)... then the best of British to him.
But I do think that's really missing the point.
Well, sort of. But when Banks claims, as he did last time (with a slightly higher proportion of both votes cast and registered voters) that he has been endorsed by "the overwhelming majority of Auckland voters", forgive me when I barf. And even if he manages not to say it, he will certainly behave that way.
Hubbard won last time by getting voters out, but it looks like turnout this time has sagged back to its usual level. C'mon Craig, you were so underwhelmed you didn't even vote on the Shore this time, and there's something deeply underwhelming about all this.
Furthermore, one of the few councillors with any imagination, Richard Simpson, has been tipped out now that the Tories of Hobson don't have an eastern motorway to fret about.
And bloody England won. The phrase "triumph of mediocrity" has been much in mind this morning ...
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C'mon Craig, you were so underwhelmed you didn't even vote on the Shore this time, and there's something deeply underwhelming about all this.
Sorry for getting all CSI about this, but you're right - the numbers don't lie. And local body politicians should use the words 'overwhelming mandate' the way I talk about my tight, firm arse. I don't, because it doesn't exist.
But I'm going to put my head through the nearest brick wall if I hear bloody Tim Shadbolt say again the problem is that the voting period is too long, the papers are "too complex" and perhaps we need to be handing out inducements to vote. Am I the only person who thinks that's not so much missing the point, as not even being on the same planet as people like me who didn't vote because not even a voucher for a free blow job from the AB of my choice could induce me to go for the lesser of two (or the least of twenty) evils?
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In passing, the voting period is still not long enough for some of us exiles. I received my voting papers here in Japan only on Oct 12, and yet was expected somehow to get my vote in the hands of the relevant official in Blenheim by Oct 13!? Of course, like most of you I couldn't really care less about any of the candidates; but as a matter of principle my non-vote should have had the potential to be my choice.
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Anyone fancy watching the RWC in Wellington in 2011 ?
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/1/story.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10469776
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Q: Oh and just how much damage can C&R do with a 11 seat majority on a council of 19 ?
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Okay, back at home now with a few minutes to look things up.
Here's the skinny: Banks' landslide win has been achieved with almost exactly the same number of votes he attracted in his landslide loss three years ago.
Hubbard, who polled 62,000 votes last time, has lost abut 27,000 votes to other candidates -- five of whom polled more than 5000 votes (compared to three in 2004) -- and to a return to the tradtional low turnout.
Only three candidates attracted more than 1000 votes in 2004: eight did so this year. Banks held his vote, Hubbard didn't, but nearly twice as many didn't vote for Banks as did.
It looks like a test case case for STV, frankly.
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DHBs are STV and delays will have them being announced with the New Years honours
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Generally speaking I see the case for STV what I don't see is how this will solve low voter turnout, lack of viable candidates and the appallingly one dimensional politics.
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I just had a rarely bad nightmare. I dreamt the ABs were out of the WC and Banks had been elected mayor. Thank god I woke up.
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so Mayors have to secure an absolute majority of registered voters
__sigh__ As I've said many time previously: the Mayor only has one vote and is a figurehead only. Unless his/her team also get voted in (as a majority) s/he is powerless.
I/O - Your real name is?
You tell me yours Procrastinator and I'll tell you mine. Don't linger with your answer.
But I'm going to put my head through the nearest brick wall if I hear bloody Tim Shadbolt say again the problem is that the voting period is too long, the papers are "too complex" and perhaps we need to be handing out inducements to vote.
Heh heh. I had a similar discussion today, with someone saying how hard it was to vote. They seriously said that the problem was that you had to mail it in, and who's got time to get to a postbox these days? I questioned how much easier it could get, since one was no longer obliged to actually go to a polling booth any more -- and that Manukau City even had a 'drive-thru' facility so you didn't even have to get out of your car to drop off your postal vote.
not even a voucher for a free blow job from the AB of my choice could induce me to go for the lesser of two (or the least of twenty) evils?
If you keep telling porkies like that Craig your nose will grow long enough to give us the second harbour crossing we need (or not) so desperately. You so would vote if you got that voucher ...
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If John Banks is the answer, what the hell is Auckland's question?
Here's one question that fits: "How can I pay off the plasma TV and Fiji holiday I put on my credit card when the bastard evil council keeps raising rates?"
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