This management report is of Electoral Commission activity in the 2004/05 and 2005/06 financial years which had an objective of improving the understanding among various audiences of MMP and other electoral matters connected with the general election.  These activities happened across three output classes.

Corporate Output and Output 2: Promotion of public awareness of electoral matters

Between general election campaigns education on electoral matters serves a broad purpose of maintaining public awareness of, and interest in, New Zealand’s democratic processes.  The range of activities and materials utilised recognises the range of audiences that include parties, journalists, the education sector, politicians, along with voters.  This activity acknowledges the diversity of the electorate and its members’ different levels of interest and prior understanding.

During the election period these activities focused on providing an accessible information base via the internet for a range of audiences looking for it, providing professional development and challenge to the news media to assist their election reportage, encouraging and supporting school-based teaching and learning using the election context, and enabling essential research of voter participation.

International visitors

The commission hosted international observers to the election on Thursday, 15 September, on a visit co-ordinated by the Chief Electoral Office.  A total of 20 observers attended from Australia, Canada, Taiwan and Yemen. A series of presentations by the chief executive and communications manager briefed the visitors on New Zealand’s electoral administration, system and history; the commission’s election education programme, and the context of the 2005 general election campaign.  A delegation of five members and senior officials from Election Commission Malaysia received a similar presentation on a visit in November 2005 which the visitors had originally sought to coincide with the election

Elections New Zealand website - www.elections.org.nz

The Elections New Zealand website, shared by all three electoral agencies, re-launched in April 2005.  The website’s vision is “to enable, encourage and educate diverse audiences to meet their electoral obligations, learn about, and participate in New Zealand’s electoral life.  It will do this by providing a seamless experience to the user while recognising and supporting the differing business objectives and constraints of each contributing agency. The website will be designed to give prominence to the likely issues to be of most interest to users at each stage of the electoral cycle”.

The new website was evaluated shortly after launch as the third best site of 57 evaluated in the New Zealand government sector for the State Services Commission, with second place commendations awarded for its cross-organisation integration, site usability, and inclusion of required government content.  This result was particularly pleasing given the redesign and content loading was achieved with a budget of less than $30,000.

The website redesign was project managed by the commission’s communications manager with external design and build costs and content loading for all three agencies paid for or provided by the commission.  The Electoral Enrolment Centre provided technical and additional project support associated with its hosting of the site.  The commission also prepared a website governance and management policy statement which was refined and adopted by the three electoral agencies.

The commission discontinued, in favour of online publication, its hardcopy guides concerning party and logo registration, broadcasting, election expense returns and donations.  The commission provides print-outs of these materials to requestors without internet access.

During the election the website helped audiences such as electors, news media, party secretaries and candidates through providing all relevant information as an integrated package, regardless of the responsible electoral agency.  The website’s layout and use of a content management system (which allows agency staff to publish directly to the website without ongoing specialist support) meant the site could provide obvious links to current information essential to each audience as well as be updated quickly.

Electoral Commission material on the website was heavily utilised by a range of audiences.  In the final week of the election campaign, for instance, 44,604 users took an MMP quiz (prompted by online advertising), while 11,534 users ran scenarios on the MMP calculator and 4,491 sought detail of the St Laguë formula.

News media

The news media are critical to the maintenance of a democracy, and particularly to assisting understanding of how its electoral system operates.  The news media also have the opportunity to influence the general public’s participation in the electoral process through the extent and nature of coverage they give to politics and electoral matters.

Journalism resources and professional development

In the lead-up to the election the commission strengthened its association with journalism education through sponsoring a further edition of Covering Elections – A Guide for Journalists edited by Colin James and published by the New Zealand Journalists Training Organisation (JTO).  The JTO ran workshops which included a commission presentation for a total of about 150 journalists at five Election Reporting professional development seminars in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch and a two-day Covering Māori Politics hui, all in June 2005.

A healthy democracy and a free, critical press are richly interdependent. …However, an imbalance is appearing which threatens this symbiotic relationship and marks weakening social cohesion.  New Zealand has begun to experience a trend of falling voter turnout that, if left unchecked, may reflect a society less concerned with upholding democratic traditions and where - as already happens in other democracies - more people do not vote at all than vote for the elected government.

Reasons for not enrolling and voting (or generally taking an interest or getting involved in politics in any way) often centre on:

• Belief that ‘my vote or voice will not make a difference’
• Feeling of inadequacy in dealing with an unfamiliar electoral process
• A pay-off from enrolling and voting thought to be neither large nor immediate
• Lack of understanding of, as well as a disinterest in, politics and learning about it
• No previous experience of participation

Lack of people around them talking politics or participating.

The Electoral Commission believes politicians and parties, electoral agencies, and the news media are all challenged by this growing disengagement.  We need to find and meet the disaffected and non-engaged through gaining their attention, understanding and future participation.  To succeed, this must occur in a context which lets them see politics’ relevance to their daily lives, and the ability and ease with which they can participate and have an impact.

Extract from the Electoral Commission foreword to
Covering Elections – A Guide for Journalists,
Colin James, ed, NZ Journalists Training Organisation, 2005.

The commission also increased its commitment to pre-career journalism education by increasing its sponsorship of the JTO guide to ensure distribution of a copy to each of the 800 journalist trainees expected to graduate over the period 2005-7.  It also received universal acceptance to offers of lectures on the electoral system and wider machinery of government matters from the 11 journalism education providers offering the national diploma or a degree.

A Wallace Awards competition for published election or politics reportage was offered to trainee journalists in 2005 in conjunction with the education efforts.  Forty-nine entries were received and judged by a panel consisting of: Jim Tucker, NZ Journalists Training Organisation; Marie McNicholas, chair, Parliamentary Press Gallery; and Peter Northcote, Manager Communications, Electoral Commission.  The panel was generally disappointed with the entry standard.  Much of the writing was uninspiring, while unjustified editorialising was often evident; there was little hard news, fresh story ideas or writing approaches; while only a minority of the work submitted was published in mainstream media.  One Wallace Award was made and eight awards of Highly Commended.  The Wallace Award was made to Te Waha Nui magazine, Auckland University of Technology students, a portfolio of four issues.  Highly Commended awards went to, in order of merit: Duncan Greive, AUT, portfolio of three stories (one with input from colleagues); Britton Broun, AUT, portfolio of three stories (one with a co-author); and Lisa Thompson and Michael Wright, Canterbury University, story.  Highly Commended and of equal merit were: Hamish McNeilly, SIT, story; Megan Whelan, CPIT, story; Miles Erwin, AUT, story; Nicole Stanley, AUT, story; and Rosie Cotter, AUT, story.  The prizes awarded totalled $2,350 in value.

Commission staff also put considerable time into helping working journalists understand the electoral system.  For instance, 80+ phone inquiries from journalists were handled during the three months July to September.

Monitoring party and media coverage and comments on MMP

Electronic, print and online media coverage was monitored throughout the campaign so that any problems could be addressed immediately.  Media monitoring was provided by Media Search Ltd which emailed a copy of all relevant article to the Electoral Commission each morning, and provided précis of broadcast stories throughout the day.  The instructions to the media monitoring company were to supply all pieces that covered:  “Issues in relation to MMP, tactical voting, voting strategies that relation to coalition formation and make special note of any politicians misrepresenting MMP in regard to voting.”

This was later refined to:  “MMP significant mentions only, no need for coalition stories unless they contain significant MMP mention.”

This section reviews print coverage provided by the monitoring company for the period 1 July – 17 September (Election Day) 2006 and the period from 18 September – 31 October.

During the election period we received editorials, opinion pieces, letters to the editor and news items which contained views about the good or bad aspects of MMP.  The following table summarises these views.  The columns are not totalled as a single article could be recorded against multiple likes/dislikes.

Table 1 - Pre-election media coverage of MMP

Most daily and many community newspapers ran a piece providing basic information on how MMP works.  The information was usually based either on the material that we provided or on an information piece created by New Zealand Press Association.  Almost all these pieces were accurate and informative.

The possibility of an overhang and how it could happen were mentioned in 14 information pieces and four opinion pieces.  Coverage of an overhang was accurate.

The one piece of misinformation that appeared in a number of newspapers (generally letters to the editor and reportage of candidates’ views) was what allegedly happened to ‘wasted votes’.  The erroneous view reported was that all of the votes cast for parties which did not cross the threshold were either in fact or effectively redistributed to the parties which had cross the threshold in a proportional we.  We contacted the original source of this view and after discussion they changed their description of what happens to wasted votes.  Where the misinformation about wasted votes was contained in a letter to the editor we sent a response and this was published. We also added information on wasted votes to our web information and changed one of the MMP quiz questions to address this issue specifically.

One area of reporting related to MMP where there is room for improvement is in the commentary accompanying the publication of an opinion poll on voting intentions.  When such polls are translated into the make-up of parliament, there are still some who do not specify the assumptions that have been made about which parties will cross the threshold and how many electorate seats would be won.  The latter is particularly important when there is the possibility of an overhang.  Translation of polling into seats was accurate and most were using and attributing the MMP calculator on the Elections New Zealand website.

Generally the same aspects were mentioned by opinion pieces and letters to the editor.  Opinion pieces were a little more likely to praise the diversity in parliament and that there has been stable government.  Letters were much more likely to complain about party lists and the loss of majority rule.

Table 2 - Post-election media coverage of MMP

During the month and a half after the election editorials, opinion pieces and letters to the editor expressed views about the good or bad aspects of MMP and made suggestions for changes.  The following table summarises these views.  The columns are not totalled as a single article could be recorded against multiple likes/dislikes.

Letter writers were more likely than columnists and editors to note aspects of MMP that they liked, often this was in response to a letter complaining about the electoral system.  Conversely the two biggest complaints were mentioned in opinion pieces as often as in letters.

Suggestions for change came within pieces that were generally both in favour of and opposed to aspects of MMP.  By far the most common suggestion was that the electorate threshold be removed so that a party would only be part of proportional allocation if it won at least 5% of the party vote.

Throughout the election period commission staff assessed media coverage and ensured issues of MMP mis-representation were addressed with a letter to the editor or reporter contact.  We also awarded Elector Halos for ‘media coverage which, in our opinion, assists in the attainment of the vision: New Zealand’s electoral framework and processes are widely used, understood, trusted and valued.  In the general election context this may include educative content or technical rigor concerning the electoral system, along with efforts to inform, engage and encourage participation in the electoral process.’

A halo was awarded to each of:

• The Dominion Post Weekend article entitled Beginner’s Guide to MMP
• Nicola White’s article about government formation printed in the Otago Daily Times
• New Zealand Herald editorial outlining the Informed Choice project
• Otago Daily Times article First-timers have their say
• MMP quiz on www.stuff.co.nz
• Peter Wilson’s NZPA article Strategic voting rears its cunning head

School-based teaching and learning using the election context

The commission is keen to encourage more learning about and participation in democratic activity at community, regional and national levels, particularly through schools.  Building general interest, skills and first-hand experience of active social participation by young people will increase their personal understanding, belief and confidence in electoral participation and thus make it easier to deliver MMP-specific voter education later, and to help entrench higher levels of understanding throughout the electoral cycle.  At election time, younger family members can help educate those of voting age.

Hands Up! – Teacher resource

Published online in October 2004, Hands Up! - Exploring decision-making and action in our place is a learning resource to help primary and intermediate-level students explore and experience identity, groups, decision-making, systems of government, and social action.  It examines issues at the heart of citizenship and involvement in society and encourages students to become socially and ‘politically’ active in issues relevant to their own lives as students will learn more by ‘doing’ than just reading about political process.

The commission decided to develop this resource after realising there was little available to support the Social Organisation strand of the Social Studies Curriculum Statement for students at levels 1-4, and even less to help teachers relate the backdrop of a general election to these students' learning in a rich way.

This resource provides information for teachers in a ‘ready-to-use’ format. Its seven activities build sequentially and are linked to the concepts outlined in the conceptual overview. The activities are designed to encourage active participation in the classroom and a focus on the local community.

Hands up! was written by teacher Bronwyn Wood, with the input of teachers Alison McRae, Carey O'Hagan, Jayne-Anne Young, Kaye Webber, and commission staff.  It is available at www.elections.org.nz/hands-up.html

The resource has been praised by teachers and teacher educators, with one pre-service teacher training provider making it a required text for students as an example of a high-quality conceptually-based learning and teaching resource.

Wallace Awards for teaching using the election context

In June 2005, the commission launched these awards to reward excellence in teaching using the context of the 2005 general election.  Awards were potentially attainable on regional and national bases, and in a number of categories including units, single lessons, resource creation, use of existing resources, multi-class projects, non social science setting, student teacher delivery, and using te reo Maori.

Judging was to consider evidence of excellent teaching practice, relevant and imaginative use of the election context, and the extent to which political knowledge, interest and participation and the development of confident, informed and socially active students who participate responsibly in New Zealand society was encouraged. 

Twenty-five entries were received by the closing date of 30 September.  Two separate panels considered a number of related entries and used the judging criteria to place them in one of the following four categories: excellent, merit, ordinary, disappointing.  The two panels were:  Entries that included holding an election - Kaye Webber and Alison McRae, teachers at Palmerston North Normal Intermediate School, Dr Helena Catt of the Electoral Commission; Entries for Secondary Schools - Mark Sheehan and Mike Taylor of Wellington College of Education, Dr Helena Catt of the Electoral Commission.  Other entries not fitting either category were considered by the final judging panel.  Those entries that had received merit or excellent from the shortlisting process were considered for awards.  Entries were considered on their own merits rather than in competition with each other.  The final judging panel determined those to receive a Wallace Award, a Highly Commended, or no award.  The panel was Carey Huria-O'Hagan, Chairperson of the Wellington Social Studies Association and representing the Aotearoa New Zealand Federation of Social Studies Associations, Dr Helena Catt & Peter Northcote of the Electoral Commission.

Wallace Awards were made to: Toby Durney and Christine Cummins, Correspondence School, for running an election; Kathy Grey, Horowhenua College, for use of the election context in social studies in a secondary school; Mrs Bridget Rika, Mrs Judy Herde, Mrs Jenny Casale, Miss Cara Brittliff, Tapora Primary, for running an election in a primary school; Shaura O’Malley, McAuley High School, for a student teacher.  Highly Commended awards were made to:  Ms Lynda Araya, English Advantage Ltd, for use of the election with adult learners; Alfriston College for use of the election with a whole secondary school; Dianne Dunna, Amy Williams, Opotiki Primary School, for use of the election in a primary school; Deidre Senior, St Joseph’s School (Oamaru), for running an election with a class.  Prizes awarded totalled $16,400 in value.

Classroom election resource sponsorship - Newspapers in Education

The commission agreed to sponsor and work with APN regional newspapers on the development and promotion of a Newspapers in Education general election resource to be made available in hard copy to schools in the relevant circulation areas, and as a web download for anyone at www.elections.org.nz/study/nie-election-study.html.

New Zealand Election Study – research sponsorship

There is little good, research based, information available on levels of political engagement in New Zealand society and reasons why engagement is low amongst some sections of society.  We need this information to confidently design and deliver effective education campaigns.

Electoral Commission funding and input to the research design of the New Zealand Election Study ensured that the 2005 election research includes detailed questions about MMP and personal political efficacy, and that the study includes a statistically robust sample of Māori.  Analysed alongside other study questions concerning voter behaviour and opinion, together with social and demographic characteristics, the sponsored research output has significant potential to inform the commission’s policy and education work.

Currently hosted by the University of Auckland, The New Zealand Election Study has conducted research around every general election since 1990.  More information is available at www.nzes.org

Output 5: Publicity in connection with the general election

Campaign objectives

Desired audience knowledge and beliefs defined for the campaign were:

• “voting is easy”
• correct understanding of the roles of the two votes
• parliamentary proportionality is based on the party vote for parties crossing threshold
• “my vote can make a difference”.

Correct audience understandings of the three occasions when the electorate contest may have wider ramifications (threshold, overhang, or an electorate being won by a candidate not from a party contesting the party vote) were desired as a secondary objective.

Campaign planning was completed on the basis that the programme had to reach all voters, but with extra effort applied to reach young adults, Māori and pacific peoples who research had shown to have lower levels of understanding of MMP.  We also know from academic research that personal political efficacy – the extent to which we believe that we understand politics, politics is relevant to our lives, and that we can make a difference through our participation – is a key determinant in the receipt and understanding of electoral messages.  (This point was reinforced through concept testing of the MMP EasyVote insert in which message recall and comprehension was linked to participants’ efficacy and not to demographic factors.)

The advertising approach shared the same orange “Elector” character and approach as used by the Electoral Enrolment Centre and the Chief Electoral Office.

Campaign elements

Key elements of the programme included:

• an insert to the EasyVote pack that arrived in voters’ mail boxes about a week before the election
• three-week intensive advertising campaign on television, radio, in newspapers and online sharing the same orange “Elector” character and general approach as used by the Electoral Enrolment Centre and Chief Electoral Office
• emphasis on reaching non-English speaking voters through Māori and ethnic media and networks
• emphasis on reaching younger voters with radio hosts primed with key chat messages to promote engagement, and with a customised execution featuring the radio or television station’s personalities
• complementary public relations activities including media relations, journalism professional development, presentations to community groups, and the commission’s broader education programme
• online quiz tested respondents’ understanding of key aspects of MMP and promoted online information
• website content and promotion, particularly MMP basic facts, downloadable scripted PowerPoint presentation, election result calculator, teacher and student resources, etc.
• distribution of the MMP basic facts pamphlets “Two ticks? Too Easy!” in te reo Māori and 16 immigrant languages via language specific publications and community networks.

Campaign highlights

Numbers

• Advertising reach and frequency against all aged 18-49 years: TV, 850 TARPS (Total Audience Ratings Points), 1+ reach 85-90%, 2+ reach 75-80%; radio, 1+ reach 68%, average  frequency 8.1.  This translates to a medium-heavy weight television schedule which reached 85-90% of its intended audience at least once while 68% of the target audience were reached by the radio campaign an average of 8.1 times.  The radio campaign particularly targeted youth, Māori and ethnic audiences.
• Online quiz attracted strong interest, including 45,000 quiz-takers in the final week of the election campaign
• MMP seat allocation calculator had more than 11,000 users in final week of the campaign
• Low inbound inquiries (1,890 free-phone calls and nine e-mails in period 12-18 September) suggested voter understanding of MMP was regenerated and satisfied by advertising and online content together with general news media coverage.

Initiatives

• Negotiated favourable sponsorship of NZ Herald (largest daily, Auckland and upper North Island circulation) election supplement, including giveaway promotion in new migrant communities, and supplement giveaways on tertiary campuses (first-time voters).
• Trial of outbound text messaging to inbound enrolment txters, using three groups: control (get nothing), a sample that got a series of engagement and efficacy messages, and a sample that was only message on election morning.  Samples have been cross-matched to electoral roll, with analysis being finalised.
• Trial of outbound direct mail pieces targeting first time voters, using three groups: control (get nothing); election week “it’s easy to do” Post-It reminder in the week before election; “it’s easy to engage” bungy item two weeks before election (plus election week reminder per group two).  Samples have been cross-matched to electoral roll, with analysis being finalised.
• Election day aerial banner towing throughout country (where the service was available and weather permitted) with the message “Tick Tick – it’s time to get voting ;-)”

Delivery

During the 2004-05 financial year the commission completed planning and sufficient preparation of materials to ensure it could deliver a public information campaign for a 2005 general election held any time after 1 July 2005.

The commission was assisted in the design and delivery of the campaign by Young & Rubicam Advertising (Auckland) and their media company Mediaedge:CIA.  Y&R, which also provides services to the Electoral Enrolment Centre and Chief Electoral Office, was appointed in May 2004 following a closed tender process.

Post campaign review

The commission met with its advertising agency following the election to review the campaign.  Key points from the review:

• Creative elements met their brief of conveying messages simply and in keeping with the campaign style.  No complaints or criticisms of the advertising content or approach were received.
• Consideration should be given in future campaigns to a greater level of detail about threshold and overhang education, but not at the expense of basic MMP education.  Also, more emphasis/rationale could be given for “every vote counts” messages.
• The commission and agency agreed that the media budget for the campaign was adequate.  The good final television performance might have allowed some reprioritisation to other media, but this was a hindsight observation.

The commission was disappointed that the other electoral agencies did not agree to a combined approach to reaching non-English speaking audiences and that external constraints prevent it including in EasyVote packs a full multi-lingual version of Two Ticks? Too Easy! explaining MMP.  There are limited channels to reach these important audiences, often utilising busy volunteer contacts and organisations.  Three separate approaches to these groups and their communities involve duplication of effort and create confusion and frustration for middle-people and the intended audience.  All the electoral agencies’ messages are inter-related and should be presented as such when dealing with small or specialist communities through narrow channels.

Resourcing

The public education project for the 2002 General Election cost $858,000 across two financial years, of which $500,000 was provided from a triennial base-lined appropriation for the purpose and $358,000 from operating and reserve funds.  The commission was grateful to secure additional funding of $548,444 (ex GST) in Budget 2005 which meant the commission could plan to deliver an election information campaign of a similar budget in real terms to that delivered in 2002.  When taken with existing baseline provision of $500,000 (ex GST) and a commission contribution of $119,000 (ex GST) from reserves, the new funding meant an available budget of $1,167,444 (ex GST).  The budget excludes staff costs (with most of the communications manager and much of the chief executive’s time in the period January – September 2005 applied to the design and delivery of the campaign, and associated public and media relations activities) and major costs of election-focused projects delivered under the corporate output and Output 2.

The commission will need to make a budget bid in the order of $5-600,000 on top of the base-lined $500,000 to ensure it can deliver an adequate election information programme in conjunction with the 2008 election.  This bid is likely to be made for the 2007-08 financial year to ensure that the campaign can be prepared with prudent timing.

The expenditure in the 2004/05 year illustrates the need for funding of the information campaign in the year preceding election year.  The final spend was 5.6% under the available budget.

Dr Helena Catt
Chief Executive
Electoral Commission
9 February 2006