Your Vote Your Community

Those are the words imprinted on the envelope used to mail in our voting papers.  Since moving here in 2006, this is the second New Zealand election we've taken part in. Unlike the US (and perhaps other countries), Permanent Residents are not only allowed to vote, they are required by law to be enrolled.

As you can see from the picture,  this election was a local one and did not require going to a polling place. Instead, the voting papers were mailed to us a couple of weeks ago; we simply filled out our choices for Mayor, City Council and District Health Board and mailed the papers back in.

Well...Darren mailed his back in.  I ran out of time and dropped off my papers at the ballot box set up in the Public Library.

The particular voting system for local elections is a complicated one - it is called the Single Transferable Vote System. You can read more about it here, if you are so interested.

It was exciting to vote, even though the elections didn't turn out exactly as we hoped.  It is empowering to be able to have a say in our chosen country, even though we are not (yet) citizens.