Voter Apathy Won on the Day

I have been collating voter recommendations since I contested the 2013 local body elections under the Affordable Auckland affiliation. My efforts in 2013 and 2016 were quite minimal with the latter taking a couple of days. In 2019, I sought to write a full-scale guide covering every district health board, licensing trust, local board, council and mayoral candidate. However, working full time as well as being on the board of the ACT Party meant that after six weeks, I only rated 282 candidates.

In 2022, I dedicated myself to writing the voting guide full time in order to complete it long before people started voting and succeeded. By September 12 I had completed the voting guide, rating 23 mayoral candidates, 66 council candidates, 381 local board candidates and 34 candidates for the Waitakere and Portage licensing trusts. In total, 503 candidates were reviewed and rated making the 2022 edition of the Absolutely Biased Guide to the Auckland Local Elections the largest and most comprehensive voting guide of its type in New Zealand political history.

Voter turnout

Apathy has won by an overwhelming majority with just 35.5 per cent of eligible Aucklanders having cast their votes, though this is up by 0.2 per cent. In 2019, 35.3 per cent had cast their votes while this figure was 38.5 per cent in 2016.

Incredibly, for the first time in my life, I was a non-voter. Despite contacting Auckland Council in early August to advise them of my Australian address, my voting papers had not shown up six days after they were posted out. I decided to request a new set and these showed up on Friday, 7 October, giving me less than 24 hours to post them back to Auckland. The media narrative throughout the campaign indicates that I am far from being the only voter denied their democratic voice by bureaucratic mismanagement. I’ll be sending a Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act request to find out how many ballots arrived after noon on Saturday, because I am beginning to suspect that apathy is not the only reason for low voter turnout.

What else could be done to increase turnout? I don’t particularly care about taking measures to increase voter turnout if the problem is people choosing not to vote, however there are a range of options.

• Nothing – if people don’t want to vote then so be it. Politicians need to provide more compelling reasons to vote.
• Make voting compulsory – I definitely don’t support this. Democracy is meant to be an electoral feature of free nations and to be quite frank, there are a lot of stupid people who avoid spreading their intellectual malaise by choosing not to vote.
• Making voting electronic – sounds good in theory but the first electronic census was an appalling mess and I’m concerned about the possibility of hacking or other forms of interference in an electronic voting system.
• Put the management of local body elections under the Electoral Commission like general elections, rather than each council managing their own elections. I suspect that the standard of practices will improve.
• Change the law so the entire Saturday becomes Election Day and people can vote at polling booths until 7pm, with three weeks prior to election day to cast an advance vote at a polling booth. This may prove somewhat less efficient than general elections due to voters casting multiple votes for multiple different bodies but voter turnout in the previous general election was 82 per cent – almost triple the participation results in the 2022 Auckland local elections.
  

Results – Mayor of Auckland

Auckland has elected its first centre-right mayor since the creation of the Supercity format in 2010. Wayne Brown has convincingly thumped the Labour-endorsed Efeso Collins, who claims he is finished with politics, though I wouldn’t rule out seeing him stand for Labour in the 2023 general election. (Note: * indicates the candidates recommended in the Voting Guide.)

I was split between three strong options for recommending the mayor but settled on Wayne Brown due to his previous experience reforming the Far North District Council and Auckland District Health Board. Craig Lord though returned 3,000 fewer votes, receiving a percentage that was 1.7 points down on the 2019 result. Reduced support for repeat candidates was almost universal in the Auckland mayoral race, with New Conservative’s Ted Johnston faring especially poorly: finishing fifth in 2019 with hand-painted signs as an independent, he came ninth this election receiving 1.1 per cent, down from 4.3 per cent.

Robert Hu’s fourth place was a surprise, given his candidate statement was barely understandable aside from his claim to have written a tri-lingual book in Maori, English and Mandarin. Incredibly, after withdrawing from the race on the day voting papers went out, Viv Beck still attracted 7,101 votes. James Dunphy’s decision to not include a photo in his candidate statement, while only providing a link to his website, was devastating to his result, as he finished 23^rd with 460 votes.

Winning Candidates – Council

(Note: * indicates the candidates recommended in the Voting Guide)

Albany

John Watson – Putting People First – 20,575 votes, 23 per cent

Wayne Walker – Putting People First – 20,007 votes, 22.3 per cent

Albert-Eden-Puketapapa

*Christine Fletcher – C&R – Communities and Residents – 20,021 votes, 26 per cent

Julie Fairey – City Vision – 16,966 votes, 22 per cent

Julie Fairey wins the seat that was vacated by City Vision’s Cathy Casey.

Franklin

Andy Baker – Team Franklin – 14,187 votes, 60.4 per cent

This seat was previously held by Team Franklin’s Bill Cashmore.

Howick

*Sharon Stewart – Independent – 16,013 votes, 23.7 per cent

*Maurice Williamson – Independent – 14,544 votes, 21.5 per cent

Former National MP Maurice Williamson beats Paul Young by 2,700 votes to take the second seat in this ward.

Manukau

Alf Filipania – Labour – 16,734 votes, 36.5 per cent

Lotu Fili – Labour – 14,935 votes, 32.5 per cent

Manukau was always going to stay with Labour. Lotu Fili replaced Efeso Collins as Labour’s candidate for the seat.

Manurewa-Papakura

*Daniel Newman – Manurewa-Papakura Action Team – 15,214 votes, 31.3 per cent

Angela Dalton, 12,055 votes, 24.8 per cent

Despite the massive split in the Action Team ticket, and Dalton’s lurch leftward, she retains her seat with a comfortable 4,000 vote margin.

Maungakiekie-Tamaki

Josephine Bartley – Labour – 8,877 votes, 47.2 per cent

North Shore

Richard Hills – A Positive Voice for the Shore – 19,269 votes, 25.9 per cent

Chris Darby – For the Shore – 17,123 votes, 23 per cent

I had hoped that the candidacy of George Wood may knock at least one of the incumbents out of council but unfortunately Wood finished in fourth place.

Orakei

*Desley Simpson – C&R – Communities and Residents – 24,634 votes, 83.9 per cent

With just one unknown left-wing candidate opposing her, Simpson easily wins the largest majority and highest number of votes out of any candidate on council.

Rodney

*Greg Sayers – Independent – 13,539 votes, 61.8 per cent

Waitakere

Shane Henderson – Labour – 16,545 votes, 23.5 per cent

*Ken Turner – WestWards – 14654 votes, 20.8 per cent

The biggest surprise in the ward contests is the unseating of three-term councillor Linda Cooper by 660 votes.

Waitemata and Gulf

*Mike Lee – Auckland Independents – 9,415 votes, 48.7 per cent

The strategic decision by the centre-right to swing their support behind Mike Lee, in order to remove Pippa Coom, worked.

Whau

Kerrin Leoni – Labour – 8,373 votes, 51.1 per cent

Whau remains the most marginal ward in Auckland, with Leoni defeating incumbent Tracy Mullholland by just 362 votes.

I expect the mayor will be able to count on the support of 11 out of 20 councillors – Baker, Fletcher, Lee, Newman, Sayers, Simpson, Stewart, Watson, Walker and Williamson. However, the two Independent Maori Statutory Board votes mean Brown may need to use his casting vote to win votes through council.

Local Board results

Albert-Eden (8 seats) C&R – Communities and Residents 4, City Vision 4.

Aotea/Great Barrier (5 seats) independents 5.

Devonport-Takapuna (6 seats) A Fresh Approach 4, C&R North Shore 2. The left-wing Heart of the Shore ticket lost all 3 seats..

Franklin (9 seats) Team Franklin 8, Working for Waiuku 1. The two independent libertarian candidates in the Pukekohe subdivision finished 6^th and 7^th.

Henderson-Massey (8 seats) Labour 5, independents (Brenda Brady, Ingrid Papau, Peter Chan) 3.

Hibiscus and Bays (8 seats) Backing the Bays 3, Coast People 3, Team Coast 1, Independent Locals 1.

Howick (9 seats) #weknowhowick 3, Practical not Political 2, C&R – Communities and Residents 2, #weknowbotany 1, Independent (Damian Light) 1.

Kaipatiki (8 seats) Shore Action 8.

Mangere-Otahuhu (7 seats) Labour 7.

Manurewa (8 seats) Manurewa Action Team 5, #LoveManurewa 4. The big split in the Manurewa Action Team ticket sees an alternative affiliation represented on the local board for the first time.

Maungakiekie-Tamaki (7 seats) Labour 4, C&R – Communities and Residents 3.

Orakei (7 seats) C&R – Communities and Residents 7.

Otara-Papatoetoe (7 seats) Labour 5, Independently Papatoetoe 1, Independent (Tupou Folau) 1.

Papakura (6 seats) Papakura Action Team 6.

Puketapapa (6 seats) C&R – Communities and Residents 4, Roskill Community Voice 2.

Rodney (9 seats) Rodney First 5, independents (Colin Smith, Tim Holdgate, Michelle Carmichael, Geoff Upson) 4.

Upper Harbour (6 seats) Living Upper Harbour 3, independents (Uzra Balouch, John McLean, Callum Blair) 3.

Waiheke (5 seats) independents (Cath Handley, Kylee Matthews, Robin Tucker, Bianca Ranson, Paul Walden) 5.

Waitakere Ranges (6 seats) Future West 4, WestWards 2.

Waitemata (7 seats) C&R – Communities and Residents 4, City Vision 3.

Whau (7 seats) Labour 5, independents (Warren Piper, Ross Clow) 2.

In 2019, there were nine local boards with a centre-right majority, nine with a centre-left majority and three evenly split. In 2022, there were 10 local boards with a centre-right majority, eight with a centre-left majority and three evenly split. Nine local boards swung to the right with just four swinging to the left.

Elected – Portage Licensing Trust (10 seats)

*Marcus Amosa – City Vision

Margi Watson – City Vision

Mark Beavis – City Vision

*Leanne Taylor – Labour

*Rob Hulse – independent

*Joe Bergin – Trusts Action Group

Jacqui Harema – independent

*Ben Goodale – Trusts Action Group

Ross Clow – independent

Darren Leckey – independent

Elected – Waitakere Licensing Trust (7 seats)

*Amanda Roberts – Trusts Action Group

Brooke Loader – Labour

Linda Cooper – independent

Warren Flaunty – independent

*Jared Patterson – Trusts Action Group

Mark Allen – Future West

*Sunil Kaushal – independent