Rotorua council keeps random order for election voting documents

“The process of the election should not affect the likelihood of receiving a vote. It should always be random.”

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Rotorua Lakes Council is sticking with the random status quo on voting documents for the next two elections.

The council voted and confirmed this week it would place candidate names in a random order for the 2025 and 2028 local elections.

Rotorua Mayor Tania Tapsell said: “My view is that using a random order is the most fair and logical way to present candidates to voters.”

Councillors had the options of alphabetical order, random order or hand-pseudo order.

Alphabetical order is considered to favour candidates whose names appear at the start of the alphabet.

Ahead of the meeting, councillor Fisher Wang had said: “It should be random; each and every candidate should have an equal opportunity to be placed randomly on the form.”

“The process of the election should not affect the likelihood of receiving a vote. It should always be random.”

Trevor Maxwell, who is New Zealand’s longest-serving elected member, said he preferred alphabetical order.

”People know where to find the one they want to vote for. I am not going to lose sleep over it - it’s still fair.” he said.