Whatever the reasoning, I hope people use their vote wisely.
Then there are all the promises.
If you vote for me, I'll do this, or we'll pay for that. Most of these things we never hear about until it's election time. And once the election is over these people will go back into obscurity and we won't hear from them for another three years.
Aside from the promises, there is the campaign trail. Politicians coming to Tauranga to try to persuade you to vote for them. They shake a few hands, kiss a few babies, try to garner as much support as possible and then disappear again.
In the newsroom we get sent several emails every day from various candidates and parties, all spouting off about one thing or another. Readers get a taste of these emails every Saturday when we publish the Spin Files.
I think Tauranga is lucky that it has representatives from most of the political parties in this election. People do have a variety of choice and many of our local candidates are quite different.
However, I worry that this election is focusing too much on name calling and talking down other party's policies.
People are more interested to hear about the real issues going on in Tauranga. The cost of living, rising house prices, the environment. What are you going to do about that?
With only weeks to go until the election, it would be nice to see our local candidates putting all the Dirty Politics aside and start talking about what they will do for our city.