Out-of-town property owners voting in Whanganui low and declining

Electoral officer Warwick Lampp said people did not care or didn't realise they could be on the ratepayer roll and have a say in elections for districts they owned property in. Photo / Bevan Conley

There are almost 3000 people who have the power to vote in Whanganui's local election later this year, but almost all of them are not enrolled and their enrolment numbers are declining.

The ratepayer roll is separate to the general roll of voters and is for people who pay rates on a property or a business within Whanganui but live outside the district.

Just 44 people are on the ratepayer roll for this year's election, despite Whanganui District Council having about 2900 ratepayers with addresses outside of the district.

That figure has dropped from 84 in 2016 and 63 in 2019.

As of the start of this month, the Electoral Commission says there were 34,083 people enrolled to vote in Whanganui, meaning those ratepayers with addresses outside the district would be close to 10 per cent (8.5 per cent) of the total vote if they enrolled.

The counting of election votes in Whanganui this year is being outsourced to electionz.com, where electoral officer Warwick Lampp says property owners have to opt in and their numbers are generally low at most councils.

"It is a bit of a process [to opt-in to vote]. And then a lot of people actually just don't care or perhaps don't realise."

Those people also fall off the ratepayer roll if they don't re-enrol every three years, Lampp said.

The parts of the country where there is the highest ratepayer rolls were usually Taupō
and Queenstown, Lampp said.

That's because a lot of properties there were holiday homes.

Lampp said in the Ruapehu district there were 77 on the ratepayer roll and he estimated as many as 500 holiday homes there.

Despite a reported increase in investors buying property in the Whanganui district over 2020 and 2021, that was not showing up in enrolments to vote in this year's election, Lampp said.

"We're not seeing a rise in activity in requests for that yet. But it could happen when the national campaign starts."

Taituarā — the national membership organisation for local government professionals - is driving a campaign to inform those people eligible for ratepayer rolls around the country

of their right to vote.

Just 44 people are on the ratepayer roll for this year's election, despite Whanganui District Council having about 2900 ratepayers with addresses outside of the district. Photo / Bevan Conley

Its chief executive Karen Thomas said people who owned property but didn't live in the district had a vested interest in the area and she hoped they would follow that to the polling booth.

"We would say voting in local elections is really, really important.

"It depends on the nature of the property. It could be ... an investment property and you could have tenants living in it. Landlords have a responsibility to think about their house's environment and changes to district plans and developments being planned around a property and where it exists."

Fewer people voted in local elections compared to national ones generally, Thomas said, blaming a misperception that councils performed badly and were not important.

"All of that contributes to an idea sometimes that local elections aren't as important as general elections and they don't need to bother."

Thomas said she hoped more would join the ratepayer roll before their Vote 22 campaign ends in August.

Whanganui mayor Hamish McDouall was surprised by the low rate of enrolment to the ratepayer roll.

"I thought it would be higher.

"I didn't necessarily think it would be hugely taken up."

McDouall said during his first three years on the council he didn't know about the ratepayer roll.

"When I first read about it I was quite confused, it didn't seem right.

"Someone just put it very simply: no taxation without representation. I understand it - I don't think it needs to be advertised, it is what it is."

McDouall assumed all ratepayers would get a notification about enrolling to vote if they wanted to.

He said voting papers for the area someone lives in might be more prevalent than the papers for another region they owned property in.

"There is always going to be some gap between ownership and participation," he said.

"Maybe they feel they don't have enough info, let alone the apathy that is an issue in local government elections."

For McDouall it was clear why a ratepayer should be interested in voting.

"If you've put significant money into a property investment, surely you'd want to enhance the amenity of that place."

Anyone correctly enrolled can vote in the local elections where they live, but need to be enrolled before August 12 to receive the voting papers.

The last day for posting votes by mail is October 4, and after that they must be delivered to council ballot boxes until midday on October 8.

Later on October 8 the preliminary results are released.