As well as mayors and local government councillors, October's local body elections see 27 candidates contesting seven elected places on the Northland District Health Board.
DHB elections take place at the same time as local authority elections on October 12, with the new board members known some time on the night of the vote.
Seven members are elected by registered voters from the Northland community for the NDHB, with up to four further board members - and the chair - appointed by the Minister of Health. All seven incumbent public appointees are standing again this election.
The 27 lining up for a seat on the health board are: Pauline Allen-Downs (incumbent), Florence Annison, John Bain (incumbent), Dennis Bowman, Craig Brown (incumbent), Shirleyanne Brown, David Collard, Beth Cooper, Brent Doncliff, Irene Durham, Debbie Evans, Mike Fitzgerald, Michael Gardam, Jill Garret, Libby Jones (incumbent), Colin Kitchen (incumbent), Maureen Lyons-Adair, Sally Macauley (incumbent), Ros Martin, Chris Reid, Dover Samuels, Bill Sanderson (incumbent), Kevin Singleton, Rosanne Taylor, John Vujcich, Mike Ward and Jonny Wilkinson.
Elections for the Whangarei and Far North district councils and Northland Regional Council are run under the First Past The Post electoral system while NDHB uses the Single Transferable Voting (STV) system.
Under the STV electoral system, voters receive a single (transferable) vote no matter whether there is one vacancy or several.
Voters rank the candidates in order of preference - 1 next to the name of the candidate most preferred, 2 next to the name of the candidate next preferred and so on.
When votes are counted, all the first preferences are allocated first. To be elected, a candidate must reach a "quota" of votes, which is based on the number of vacancies and the number of valid votes.
A candidate who reaches the quota is elected. If there is more than one vacancy and a candidate gets more votes than the quota, a proportion of each vote for that candidate is transferred to the voter's second preference.
If, as a result, another candidate gets more votes than the quota, a proportion is transferred to third preferences. If insufficient candidates reach the quota after the first preferences are allocated and after any surplus votes are transferred, then the candidate who received the fewest votes is eliminated and each vote for that candidate is transferred to the voter's second preference. This process is repeated until enough candidates reach the quota.
The NDHB is led by chairman Tony Norman and the board makes decisions regarding the region's public health services, including public hospitals in Whangarei, Kaitaia, and Dargaville.
The DHB - which covers the area from Te Hana to Cape Reinga - has an annual operating budget of more than $500m and employs around 2621 staff.