Possible excessive rates rises, what a shock? Not really, they do it every time.

Problem is we vote for people that most of us don't know; we get a paragraph about them in the election pamphlet and a few local meetings when there's an election on.

They then run our councils for us for the next three years, usually going back on any policies promised.

Why can't we tell them how much we want to pay and what decisions we want, followed by referendum on all major decisions using computers?

Their job should be to explain the argument to us and then we vote on it.

Remember they are, on the whole, no more intelligent than the average person. We can vote online; my bank has a system where they know who I am when I log onto my account and only I can access it.

We all have access to libraries with computers, if not our own computer.

Compared to the millions they seem to waste, I imagine setting this up wouldn't seem expensive.

If 40 per cent of people voted on an issue, that's a lot better than the Tauranga Mayor's 10 per cent backing of the possible voting electorate.

I'm sure more would vote, including the disfranchised younger voters, giving us better democracy.

Can the people really do any worse?

Just don't use the guys that gave us Novopay to set it up.

Clive Copsey, Ohauiti.