I voted

It's hard to believe it's been 12 years since I last voted. My birthday is just before election day and I've voted every year since I turned 18. However, I couldn't vote in the UK until I had citizenship, and I moved to New Zealand three days after I got that.

(If I had put my name on the electoral role before I left the UK, I would have been able to vote for Brexit, but I was more concerned with packing all my stuff and selling my car. Also, at the time I hadn't expected to leave Britain forever. I guess what I'm saying is that Brexit is my fault.)

As an American ex-pat I am able to vote for President, but only for President, and my vote goes to the electoral college for the state I last lived in, which is California. I understand the absentee ballots are only counted if the election is too close to call, and since California is always strongly democratic, it seemed like a complete waste of paper (and an expensive stamp).

New Zealand would let me vote once I had permanent residency, which I got one month *after* the 2017 election. And unlike the US, where you vote for a mix of federal, state, county and local officials at the same time, in New Zealand you have separate national and local elections National elections are every three years and you only get two votes: Your local parliament representative and your party vote.

I think I spoke about MMP (mixed member proportional representation) before but the quick recap is that parliament is adjusted to reflect the overall country. To put this in US terms, about 31% of Americans are registered as Democrats, 25% as Republican and 40% as "other." In the Senate, however, Republicans make up 53%, Democrats are 45% and "other" are 2%! That doesn't represent the country at all! If the US had MMP, the elected senators would still be there but the Democrat Party and third parties would be given extra seats so they made up 31% and 40%, respectively. It would no longer be a two-horse race and the third parties would have real leverage as the big parties needed their support to form a working majority.

So who did I vote for? The Labour party, lead by Jacinda Arden. Three years ago the National party had been in power for nine years, the economy was doing well, the Labour leader wasn't well-liked and the polls indicated Labour were going to have their worst result in history. Six months before the election, the Deputy Leader resigned and Jacinda was elected to replace her. Then two months before the election, the Labour leader stepped down, as well! Jacinda stepped up and ran an unrelentingly positive campaign. She was passionate, informed, empathic, and she didn't have a chance. She didn't win the election but she saved Labour and, more crucially, she stopped the National party from achieving a majority on its own. National had to form get a coalition to get a majority, but no third parties wanted to work with them!

Then a crazy thing happened: Jacinda formed a coalition with the "New Zealand First" party. They were unlikely bedfellows, much like the Tories and Liberal Democrats in the UK in 2010, but with the roles reversed. Jacinda, at 37, became the new Prime Minister. She was very likeable but her track record was a bit spotty - a lot of promises with little to show for it - and she may well have lost in the next election except for a little thing called Covid-19. By relying on the doctors and scientists, and expressing compassion, she got the entire country working together and was able to nearly eliminate the virus from New Zealand. It wasn't perfect and of course the New Zealand economy has taken a big hit, but everyone knew how much better they were compared to the rest of the world.

In 2017, rather than an historic defeat, Labour won 14 new seats. In 2020, they won an additional 19 seats, The National party, by contrast, lost 3 seats in 2017 and 23 seats in 2020! Going into 2020 they had a very unlikable leader; he was challenged by another member of the party and lost, but then the new leader stood down a few weeks later, allowing a third person -- Judith Collins -- to take the role. It should have been interesting, having two females contesting for the role of Prime Minister, but Judith ran a very mean campaign and everyone hated her.)

So in 2014, National had 60 seats and Labour had 32. In 2020, Labour has 65 seats and National has 33. Amazing how quickly the tides can turn.

(On a personal note, it's the first time I've ever voted for a liberal party. In the US, I always voted for the Libertarian Party* because, as I said, California was always going to vote Democrat so I didn't have to worry about keeping out Republicans.)

* True Libertarians, not scumbags like Rand Paul.