John MacDonald: Here's how to get more people voting in local body elections

You can call me a nerd, if you want to. But I reckon there is nothing like the performance of walking down to your local polling booth on voting day and casting your vote.

The way we do every three years when we’re electing a Government. In the general election.

There’s no confusion. It’s well-publicised. You can do early voting, if you want to or need to. But we all know, don’t we, that when we wake up on a particular Saturday morning every three years - we know it’s voting day.

Not so straightforward, though, when it comes to voting for our local council. Which, let’s face it, actually has more sway over our daily lives than central Government.

And I think we need to merge the general election with local body elections, which I’ll get to shortly.

But, for some reason, in the spirit of trying to make it easier for us to vote in our local elections, we’ve actually made it more difficult.

And this is something Local Government New Zealand wants to try and sort out. It wants to get more of our voting in the elections for our local councils.

I reckon the pitiful voter turnout - compared to general elections - largely comes down to the fact that you can pretty much vote when you want in local body elections. Well, within a voting period. But you can do it when it suits you.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Canterbury Morning's Podcast with John McDonald
from News Talk ZB.

Speaker 2 (00:13):
You have permission to call me a nerd. You can
call me a nerd if you want to. But I
reckon there is nothing like the performance. I think that's
the best word. Is nothing like the performance or the ceremony.
Maybe there's another way of putting it, nothing like it
of walking down to your local polling booth on voting

(00:34):
day and casting your vote the way we do every
three years when we're electing a government in the general election.
There's no confusion. It's well publicized. You can do early
voting if you want to. I never do, never have
because I love voting day. But you know, with the

(00:55):
general election, we all know it, don't we that when
we wake up on a particular Saturday morning every three years,
we know it's voting day. Not so straightforward though, when
it comes to voting for our local council, which let's
face it, actually has more sway over our daily lives
than central government. And I think we need to merge

(01:16):
the general election with local body elections, which I'll get
too shortly, but for some reason, in the spirit of
trying to make it easier for us to vote in
our local elections. We've actually made it more difficult and
this is something Local Government New Zealand wants to try
and sort out. Wants to get more of us voting
in the elections for our local councils. You might have

(01:37):
heard Rahetti Stots talking to Mike Earl. She's mayor of Gisabon,
but she's also a member of Local Government New Zealand's
Electoral Reform Group, which has the job of coming up
with ways to get more people voting for their local councils.

Speaker 3 (01:50):
At the stage, we use the postal system. No one
used mailboxes anymore. If you think of the general elections,
there's a voting day, it is nationally advertised. So maybe
if we take a look and make it easier for
people to vote, we can get more people involved.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
And that is that that's another of the problem and
the solution all in one, all in fifteen seconds, I
reckon the pitiful voter turnout compared to general elections. This
is the pitiful voter turnout and local body elections. I reckon.
It largely comes down to the fact that you can
pretty much vote when you want to in local body elections, well,

(02:28):
I mean within a certain voting period, but you can
do it when it suits you. If you compare voter
turnout for the general election with local body elections, it's
very clear. At last year is general election seventy eight
point two percent. In the most recent local body elections
it was forty percent nationally, so what half slightly better

(02:50):
in christ Church forty three point three percent, but still
way shure where things are with the voter turnout for
the general election. And the reason for that is simple,
in my view, the voting papers in the local body
elections in the mail, they sat on the kitchen bench.
Every time we walk past them, we think, ooh, must

(03:12):
get those away. But for most people, the only time
those papers leave the bench is when they realize it's
all too late and they chuck them in the yellow bin.
And then for the next three years they complained about
how hopeless they're local councilors. And you know, can you
believe how the rates have gone up under these clowns.
So local government New Zealand, if you're listening, here's what

(03:34):
needs to happen to make sure more people do vote
in your local body elections. For starters council elections or
local body elections, whatever you want to call them, they
should happen at the same time as general elections. And
it's a very good reason for this, not just because
it makes sense doing it at the same time. The
reason is how many times have we heard that councils
have had to pull the pen on something example very

(03:58):
recent example cycle ways because there's been a change in
government or a change in government policy and the money
they thought they were getting from Wellington not happening anymore gone.
You see, if local body elections were held at the
same time as general elections, things would be more in sync,
wouldn't they. And the other big change that's needed is
we need to get rid of this postal voting because,

(04:20):
as I've just said, the papers arrive in the mail,
most of us end up throwing them in the bin
because we just don't get around to it unless you're
a nerd like me and unless you love elections. But
for normal, non nerdy people, these voting papers just gather
dust and then it's too late. So instead of postal

(04:40):
voting and local body elections, I reckon there should be
a voting day where you have to turn up at
your local polling booth unless you need to do an
early vote, and I reckon that should happen on the
same day as a general election. I was thinking earlier,
I was saying to Jess, would that meant a whole
lot more time in the polling booth? And actually, I
don't think it would add that much time because you'd

(05:01):
go in and instead of casting just your party vote
and your electric vote in the general, it also cast
you vote as well for who you want to be
mere and who you want to be your local counselor.
I reckon it would be a game changer, and I
reckon it we get a truckload more people taking part
in local body elections. And if that is the objective,

(05:23):
why not For

Speaker 1 (05:25):
More from Category Mornings with John McDonald, listen live to
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