A total of 466 candidates are standing in Auckland’s local elections. The good news is, you don’t have to get to know them all, just candidates standing in your area and those standing for mayor.
Your personalised voting paper will specifically identify the candidates for the area you’re registered to vote in.
“We are really pleased with the number of candidates who have put their hand up to lead Auckland as it means voters are likely to have more choices that are reflective of their community. Research shows that having this kind of choice, leads to more voters participating,” says Rose Leonard, Auckland Council’s Manager Governance Services.
Your cheat sheet to voting
To make choosing easier, Auckland Council has revamped its candidate directory search tool where you can read about the people standing in your area.
Go to voteauckland.co.nz/findcandidates and type in your street address, select the type of candidates – mayor, councillor, local board or all to look up specific candidates standing in your area. The search results will tell you which ward and local board areas you are in, and shows for each candidate:
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a profile statement
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a bit about themselves
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why they’re standing
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what they love about the area they’re standing for
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their views on Auckland’s key priorities.
Rose explains, “We understand a lot of eligible voters don’t bother voting because they don’t know anything about the candidates. So, our team has created a fantastic candidate search tool that’s user-friendly and gives voters good insights into who they can vote for. We hope that people find this really helpful when making their choice.”
Things are moving and changing
Not only has Auckland’s total number of candidates exceeded 2019’s nominees by 10 per cent, there are also variations to local government’s typical candidate profile.
For the first time ever, Auckland has gender-diverse candidates, an increase in the number of candidates aged 35-44 years, but a 7 per cent decrease in those aged 55-64 years. And although New Zealand-born and New Zealand European candidates continue to be a more prominent demographic, this group has dropped in numbers by 11 per cent. Meanwhile the number of candidates of the Middle Eastern, Latin American, African and other demographic has increased by 8 per cent.
With more, and fresher faces with different perspectives represented through candidates, could this change the make-up and volume of voter turnout? You be the judge.
Voting opens Friday 16 September and closes midday Saturday 8 October.
Can you change Auckland? You can. For everything you need to know about voting: voteauckland.co.nz
