Local Government NZ, an organisation representing 75 councils across the country, has asked me to lead work on how we can reform the way we run local elections.
I am very committed to democratic values. I love Abraham Lincoln’s quote about democracy being government “of the people, by the people and for the people”. The risks to democracy today are declining voter turnout, social media disinformation, increased community polarisation, a weakened independent media and the rise internationally of authoritarian regimes. It is an apt time to rethink and refresh.
This work is focused on addressing the decline in local election participation. It has fallen from about 60% to 40% over the past 35 years. This undermines the foundations of local government and the mandate of mayors and councillors to speak for their communities. By contrast, the voter turnout in our parliamentary elections is 80%, which has held steady and is high by international standards.
Postal voting is a big problem for council elections. Post is in decline; most people now do their business online and many households don’t have a letter box. The alternative of online voting has major security concerns. This issue with postal voting needs sorting.
I also believe there is a problem with the complexity and publicity of local elections. Each council has its own system of voting and different get-out-to-vote campaigns. A bit of KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid) may be needed.
There is also the issue of the Coalition Government proposing a referendum on a four-year parliamentary term. I favour four years for council and parliamentary elections but regardless, local and central government terms need to be the same length and timed so they are clearly separate.
Our LGNZ group will be engaging with mayors, councils and communities across the country as well as the political parties from the Government and Opposition to find a way forward. Other members of the group are Mayors Campbell Barry (Lower Hutt), Susan O’Regan (Waipā), Rehette Stoltz (Gisborne) and Councillor Toni Boynton (Whakatāne).
This is difficult work as any change to elections needs broad agreement. Integrity and confidence in our voting systems is so important. I welcome Nelsonians’ thoughts.
