The NZ modified Single Transferable Vote system was confirmed by the DCC under urgency because DCC staff forgot the decision deadline, when this should have been an informed consulted on Dunedin Community decision.

We need almost 5,000 signatures from confirmed Dunedin voters to get an STV/FPP binding referendum that will allow the people of Dunedin to decide rather than STV elected representatives.

If the petition to trigger is successful, the binding referendum that will give all Dunedin voters the choice of STV or FPP will cost about $300,000 to get referendum process and papers to all Dunedin voters, according to CEO Graham.

We need a week or two to get the Voting Petition wording, voter status confirmation and legal issues sorted before the Petition papers get circulated, in print and on-line.

From: Lee Vandervis <lee@vandervision.co.nz>

Date: Friday, 18 September 2026 at 4:46 PM

To: Grant Miller <grant.miller@odt.co.nz>; Ruby Shaw <ruby.shaw@alliedmedia.co.nz>

Cc: Council 2025-2028 (Elected Members) <council.2025-2028@dcc.govt.nz>; Sandy Graham <sandy.graham@dcc.govt.nz>

Subject: Petition to trigger decision on STV/FPP.

Hi Grant and Ruby,

At least 4 Councillors Galer, Lund, Simms and Vandervis have decided to publicly initiate a petition to allow the public of Dunedin to have a binding referendum on our voting system, to allow the voting public to decide on whether they want to stay with the modified Single Transferable Voting system that a minority of Councils have been using for there past two decades, or to return to First Past the Post as long used by most NZ Councils and most of the Democratic world.

We believe that the STV computer system modified by Internal Affairs programmers over twenty years ago has not served Dunedin well because it is not representative, not transparent, not widely understood and has not increased voter participation as hoped because it is daunting for voters, especially when there have been up to 54 candidates that could be ranked in order of preference.

We understand that if we get over 4737 confirmed registered voters signatures [5% threshold required] to the petition before December 11th this year, that this will trigger a Dunedin-wide binding referendum that will allow Dunedin voters to chose between STV or FPP in the 22028 and 2031 local body elections.

We believe that the Dunedin Community should make this decision, not the Council under urgency in an Extraordinary meeting with little information because DCC staff forgot that a deadline for the decision was due.

More details of how to sign the petition and what the petition wording will be, will be available within a fortnight when we have taken legal and other advice.

Regards,

Crs. Galer, Lund, Simms and Vandervis