Early predictions are that voter turnout has been lower than in the last election.
The majority of Hawke's Bay's next local government representatives will walk into their new roles with a chip on their shoulders about the Three Waters reforms.
Hawke's Bay Today surveyed candidates from Tararua to Wairoa about whether they supported the Government's move to nationalise water assets, and of 55 receivedresponses only five candidates were clearly in favour.
All three of Napier's mayoral candidates strongly oppose Three Waters reform, Nigel Simpson even noting that he's got a "Stop Three Waters" sign on the gate to his house.
Even Hawke's Bay regional council candidates (whose councils will arguably be unaffected in their roles by the reforms) are almost all strongly against it.
Ahuriri regional council candidate Neil Kirton described the reforms led by Local Government Minister Nanaia Mahuta as "straight out of a Kremlin hymn book" while Heretaunga candidate Craig Foss also invoked Russia with a quote that he was "allergic to Soviet-style solutions looking for problems that don't exist".
Hastings-Havelock North, the place where the Three Waters reforms all started, doesn't have a candidate that clearly supports them. Photo / Paul Taylor
Three Waters is focused on three main types of water infrastructure: Stormwater, drinking water and wastewater.
At the moment, about 85 per cent of this is managed by councils - and some do it better than others.
About 8000 people were infected by campylobacter contamination centred in Havelock North in 2016, leaving at least four dead, others permanently disabled, and thousands sick. It cost the local health board more than $760,000.
This prompted the Government to take a look at water services and how they were being delivered across New Zealand.
It eventually proposed a programme of reform which would see water management taken from New Zealand's 67 councils, and handed to four big regional entities.
Hawke's Bay councils responded by co-signing on a regional alternative to the Government's proposal because they didn't want to be responsible for the whole of the East Coast of the North Island, the top of the South Island and the Chatham Islands.
The majority of the 42 council candidates Hawke's Bay Today determined were clearly against Three Waters instead favoured the regional model.
This was particularly the case in Hastings-Havelock North Ward (the centre of the outbreak) where no candidates were firmly in favour of the reforms.
In Hastings, most candidates cited the huge infrastructure changes that had been made already and the fact that councils which had been tardier than them with upgrades were likely to benefit.
Among the rare voices who did speak up in stoic support of the reforms was Pip Burne, a candidate in Central Hawke's Bay.
Burne said a small community such as CHB could not afford to fund the type of investment needed in our Three Waters infrastructure without reform, or huge rate increases.
"Water rates would likely go from $1800 per annum to approximately $7000pa in the next 10 years. It is not something our Three Waters-connected community can afford. We need reform."
In Napier, candidate Hayley Brown said change was needed.
"I think the representation structure needs work, but I see value in an appropriately qualified professional board governing a utility like water.
"They're better placed to understand risks and consequences of doing or delaying work, and they won't have to balance spending with things like parks and libraries."
In Wairoa, candidate Murray Olsen also bucked the trend, saying he liked the fact that Three Waters included movement towards co-governance of water.
"I accept Three Waters. I would have done things differently, but many councils have neglected Three Waters infrastructure for years.
"In terms of our daily lives, I don't expect it will make a lot of difference. The water plant will still be in Wairoa and will employ Wairoa people."
