Why should you vote in the local body elections?

Joseph from Te Atatu South

Why should you vote in the local body elections? Based on the low voter turnouts most people don’t care much about local government elections but these elections have more to do with people’s everyday lives than central government elections. They cover our footpaths, local roads and parks which you interact with more on a daily basis.

I can understand peoples lack of interest. It is time consuming to find out information on candidates and some people find the complexity of all the roles and votes too much. It’s not like central government where information is in the news daily. Due to these difficulties, most voters resort to voting based on the political “colours’ they know, old names they recognize or not voting at all.

Hopefully people take the time to find out about the candidates, where they live, how long they have lived there and what they actually stand for.

Good sites to check out about candidates are their Facebook pages or:

www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz...

Or

policy.nz...

This website covers understanding how council works :

www.aucklandcouncil.govt.nz...

Voting is open until Saturday October 8th midday. Free postal votes need to be sent by next Monday October 3rd or you can drop them off at dropped off at libraries, some train stations, Countdown supermarkets or council service centres. If you haven’t received your voting papers you can call 0800 367656.