Let鈥檚 ditch political polls in the build up to elections.
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Most of us have eagerly awaited each poll as they have come out in recent weeks 鈥 they do attract viewers, listeners and online readers, but here鈥檚 the bit I object to - they influence votes.
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For example the amount of people I have spoken to who have told me they would like to vote for Gareth Morgan鈥檚 The Opportunity鈥檚 Party has been significant.
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A lot of people my age (mid-twenties) can relate to what he is saying.
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But when asked if they would vote for the Party 鈥 Most simply said 鈥淣ah, it doesn鈥檛 look as if they will reach five-percent, it will be a wasted vote.鈥
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It鈥檚 the same reason why some people might be considering voting Greens instead of Labour to ensure the party gets over the five-percent.
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Quite frankly, that鈥檚 not how the system should work.
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People shouldn鈥檛 be influenced by a thousand or so people who were called up randomly.
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They should be influenced by policy.
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People should vote for the political party and candidate they want to enter government.
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They should be thinking about what is most important to them, and not how to vote tactically to best influence who forms government.
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Ditching the polls would also change the rhetoric of the campaign.
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Think of the first question at both TVNZ debates this election 鈥淲hy are you winning?鈥 and 鈥淲hy are you losing?鈥
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A complete waste of time 鈥 especially considering how volatile the polls have been.
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We鈥檇 also be spared of all the theoreticals around how each party could work with another each week.
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Polls should be banned from publication for the six months leading into an election.
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Political Parties can still do their internal polling so they can see what is proving popular and what isn鈥檛 鈥 they just can鈥檛 publish them.
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Think about how much polls have influenced this election already.
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Andrew Little resigned after being confronted by media about poor results. We then saw the 鈥楯acinda effect鈥 which took votes away from the Greens, New Zealand First and even National.
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This led to a complete change of campaign from National who were set to run a campaign on their performance 鈥 but have instead spent more time highlighting what it packaged as uncertainty around Labour鈥檚 policies.
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Meteria Turei resigned after realising her approach to welfare reform was failing miserably. How? Because TV3 released a really bad poll that showed them with less than five-percent support.
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It may have been a duller election, but without them the process would have been more democratic.
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