Northlanders pay more for elections

The price of democracy is increasing, but it's cheaper in Whangarei than it is in other northern districts.
Whangarei voters paid $4.46 each to vote in the 2010 local body elections, while voters in the Far North paid $5.15 per elector and $6.92 was paid per elector in Kaipara.
A report summarising the processes, results and costs of the 2010 local body elections was tabled at the Whangarei District Council meeting yesterday.
The report, by Independent Election Services electoral officer Dale Ofsoske, showed Whangarei electors paid $38,449 more for the right to vote in 2010 than they did in 2007.
Broken down to individual electors, this figure works out to be $4.46 plus GST compared with $3.86 plus GST in 2007.
Mr Ofsoske said the increase in the price of voting was because of hikes in the costs of printing and posting the voting mailers, as well as higher advertising costs.
As for the difference in election costs between the three northern districts, Mr Ofsoske said Whangarei was automatically advantaged by having a bigger electoral roll than its neighbours.
Basic election costs were incurred by all councils and those with bigger electoral rolls were able to spread the costs further, he said.
Furthermore, he said the Far North District Council had a higher election cost because it had community boards, whereas the Whangarei and Kaipara District Councils did not.
Kaipara District Council incurred a higher election cost than either of its neighbours because it used the Single Transferable Vote electoral system which created more votes to count, Mr Ofsoske said.
Mr Ofsoske's report shows the Whangarei District Council was able to recover $127,145 plus GST of the total election costs of $240,599 plus GST from the Northland Regional Council and the Northland District Health Board.
After recovering costs from the regional council and district health board, the Whangarei District Council was left with a bill of $113,454 plus GST.
That cost was split over 53,916 electors, working out at $2.10 plus GST per elector.
 
PRICE OF DEMOCRACY
- $4.46 each
to vote in Whangarei

- $5.15 each
to vote in Far North
- $6.92 each
to vote in Kaipara