Hawke's Bay's slow vote: Worries as local election date nears

Open the papers, fill them in, and send them back. Photo / Doug Laing

Fears of a continued decline in local elections voting are starting to materialise as trends appear in on-line statistics for voter returns in Napier and Hastings halfway through the voting cycle.

In Napier, where there are elections for all available positions – the mayoralty, council wards and a regional council constituency - 45,963 people are on the roll, but just 3549 had returned papers counted by late Tuesday.

It's a 7.72 per cent response, which compared with 12.66 per cent at the same stage of the last of the triennial elections in 2019, down also from the 14.15 per cent at the comparable stage in 2016, and 16.17 per cent in 2013.

In 2019, sparked by a keen leadership race with the previous mayor not standing, the turnout by the time the poll closed was 50.04 per cent, compared with 43.85 per cent in 2016 and 47.76 per cent in 2013.

In the Hastings District Council elections, 6.68 per cent of 29,999 enrolled in the urban ward of voters have had their papers counted, which compares with a district-wide return of 12.09 per cent at the same stage in 2019, 15.98 per cent three years earlier, and 17.15 per cent at the 2013 poll.

Voters are being warned they will have to hand deliver their papers to polling booths if not posted by next Tuesday.

The poll closes at midday, Saturday October 8 and interim results will be
announced that afternoon.

Retiring Hastings council Flaxmere Ward member Henare O'Keefe, deciding against seeking re-election after 15 years at the table, said that like everyone he wonders how the trends can be reversed.

"It's a worry," he says.

"I tell people 'how else are you going to have your say, if you don't vote don't come complaining to me?'," he said.

"People have to realise this is their local council, and it affects every minute of their daily lives, whether it be roads, parks, toilets… all of those sorts of facilities."

He urged people to ensure that people aged 18 or over by October 8 are enrolled and that they vote.

He was supported by former Napier mayor Barbara Arnott who said she had seen the overall turnout decline from more than 50 per cent during her 2001-2013 term, as it has done throughout New Zealand.

Arnott worries communities are feeling "less-engaged" with their councils which turn more and more to the requirements of central Government.

She says it's not helped by the low numbers of people that constituents have to vote for in a ward structure, with some people in Napier having just a mayor, two councillors and three regional councillors.

Many throughout Hawke's Bay have less 'ticks' to make, and at least 17,000 people in Hawke's Bay have no one to vote for, on any council, because nominations equalled the number of vacancies and candidates have been elected unopposed.

But she said: "It's democracy. We fought hard for it. If you support democracy, then you must get out and vote".