Source: Radio New Zealand
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown. RNZ/Marika Khabazi
Auckland mayor Wayne Brown says it is not his council’s responsibility to get people to vote in local elections.
Less than a third of Aucklanders voted in the 2025 local elections. Just 29 percent or 345,004 registered electors voted, the lowest turnout of the past three elections.
The number of special votes increased by 33 percent compared to 2022. But just over 60 percent of the 9306 special votes cast had to be thrown out, due to people not filling out their ballots properly.
At its Policy and Planning Committee meeting on Tuesday, Auckland councillors finalised their submission to the government as part of an inquiry into the 2025 local elections.
The council’s submission recommends that local elections change to booth voting run by the Electoral Commission instead of private contractors, and that a national review of voting methods for local elections, including online voting, be conducted.
The submission stated that postal voting was no longer fit-for-purpose and had proven reliability issues.
It also said compulsory voting should be considered to increase participation.
Brown said he did not see an issue with low turnout.
But he supported his fellow councillors’ calls to move to in-person voting in 2028.
“Postal voting has kind of had its day. Let’s do the same as what the government do. Just have a day when you all go out, and if you don’t go out, too bloody bad.
“If people aren’t bothered to vote, then we should respect that. They have chosen not to vote.”
The mayor said central government elections should not have a different voting system from local elections.
“The main point I would like to see in our submission is why the central government feel they deserve a better system than we get. It’s not as if they get better people.”
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand