Not due to any great enthusiasm for candidates, I have to admit. And not simply so I can complain about the things that councils do, as I indicated in a column a few weeks back.
No, I voted because that's potentiallythe only way any of us can actually have a say.
I work with words for a living, but now I read that words are a "weapon".
Our Prime Minister, in an address to the United Nations, has talked of the danger of words and the war that must be fought to stop people saying and thinking stupid things.
That troubles me. As does the idea that things that I write might somehow be construed as hate speech.
I've disagreed with people most of my life. Parents, siblings, friends, teachers, principals, bosses, you name it.
Voting is vital, says Hamish Bidwell, if you want to have your say about local matters. Photo / NZME
I've frequently been at odds with the ideas of people that I've interviewed over the years, but you quote them accurately and let the readers decide. You don't out them as heretics or seek to have them cancelled.
There are fools among us here in New Zealand, who say and do foolish things. That is their right.
Just as it is then our right to judge them on those words.
What we cannot have - and what I feel as if we're already getting - is a group of people deciding what people are entitled to say. That opinions can be stated, just as long as they're the "right" opinions.
Any view to the contrary is dismissed as misinformation or disinformation. After which we're a stone's throw away from calling all dissenters fascists.
Time was when we could disagree. When we were able to accept differences of opinion and retain our respect for one another.
That degree of compassion and understanding now appears to elude us and shows us - in case we needed reminding - why democracy matters.
I know politics has become increasingly hard for people to engage with. That trust in politicians, and those who write and talk about them, has diminished in recent times.
There is a sense that the rest of us are powerless. That we can't change anything, that we have no control over decision-making.
Well, that's why we have democracy.
The powers-that-be might want to censor your opinion, but they can't take your vote away from you.
I think more people should vote and I was saddened by the generally low turnout across the country. I'm not sure a postal vote is the best mechanism, but it's no excuse not to bother.
Your voice matters, your opinions matter, your vote matters.
You can't create change by railing against the system, but you can change the system by voting.
To see some council wards in Hawke's Bay go uncontested and for there not to be a race for the Hastings and CHB mayoralty is hellishly disappointing and short-sighted.
I have fears for the future of free speech, but I don't imagine we'll ever see a time when voting gets taken away from us too.
That remains the best mechanism of ensuring that the voice of the people is heard.
* Hamish Bidwell writes a weekly column for Hawke's Bay Today
