Strategic Voting: Gaming MMP or Just Democracy?

Simon O'Connor from Family First unpacks the growing debate around "strategic voting" and the Mowbray overhang plan, where voters split their party and electorate votes to boost overhang seats in Parliament. He explains that with National polling around 29% but historically winning far more electorate seats, senior ministers like Nicola Willis, Chris Bishop and Gerry Brownlee risk losing their list-based seats if the party's overall vote share doesn't recover.

O'Connor argues this isn't a corruption of the system but simply MMP working as designed, noting Te Pāti Māori has long used a similar approach on the left. He weighs up how a weaker National or Labour vote share would hand more cabinet influence to minor parties such as ACT, New Zealand First, the Greens and Te Pāti Māori, while flagging Family First's own Value Your Vote resource ([www.familyfirst.org.nz](https://www.familyfirst.org.nz)) for voters wanting to compare party positions ahead of the election.

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