When were you last genuinely enthusiastic about casting your vote? Not just resigned to the least bad option, but actually excited to tick that box? 

For most of us, the answer is a long time ago, or never. We know exactly who we cannot stand and why the other lot would be a disaster. But our positive support for any party is probably lukewarm at best. 

The way our voting works assumes that adding negativity will create positive change, but in mathematics, we know that adding negative numbers is a form of subtraction.  

Perhaps the voting system should reflect that. 

Imagine this:  

It is 7 November 2026. You head to the polls and discover that, not only can you vote for a party, but you can also vote against one.  

Instead of adding to your preferred party’s vote count, you could bring down the count of one you hate. Now that voters have finally mastered MMP, this would take democracy to a whole new level. 

Are you a middle-aged farmer worried about the Greens’ alternative Budget, or a young college graduate mad at the Coalition for reducing Auckland’s housing construction allowance? Use the negative vote to express your anger! 

No one would be obliged to use their positive vote, so all votes could be negative. The party with the fewest negative votes would then win the election. Better yet, a party could win with no votes at all. Is this how TOP finally enters Parliament? 

Strategic voting would evolve. Voters wanting to strengthen Labour's bargaining position could vote down the Greens. Similarly, a potential National voter could instead downvote ACT to push them below the electoral threshold.    

Other voters would simply troll.  

You might spend weeks agonising over your choice, weighing the policies, reading the manifestos, and finally cast your positive vote with hard-won conviction. Then, your flatmate could cancel you out with a negative vote and a grin. Call it Newton's Third Law of Democracy: Every upvote has an equal and opposite downvote. 

After elections, there would be so many competing claims of legitimacy that a stable coalition may never form. This is Newton’s First Law of Democracy: A democracy at rest stays at rest unless acted upon by a constructive electorate. 

Alas! A democracy at rest is a sleeping beauty. Political negativity is like a bewitched apple: it looks positive, but it will only subtract from what we can accomplish.