Election Campaigns July 2024
Strategy, Finance and Risk Committee 18 September 2023
Ward map – 9 Councillors + Mayor
8 general wards, 1 Māori ward
Timeline
Final election results
available (5 days after
26 April
Nominations open
25 July
election)
2024
Māori electoral option
2024
closes
24 May
Nominations close
Early
Inaugural Council meeting
2024
August
2024
29 June-
20 July
Three week postal voting
Mid
2024
Special voting opens
Governance structure new
August
council decided
2024
Election day voting
20 July
closes at 12 noon –
2024
progress results in
afternoon
Two distinct parts of campaign
Part 1.
Encourage quality candidates to stand for election
Led by Commissioners – part of their TOR
“work with the Council to encourage quality candidates to stand for election”
Attributes of a quality candidate defined – see handout
Part 2.
Increase voter participation – goal is 50% voters (approx 105,000 voters)
(40.3% 2019)
Led by staff
Target voters who don’t usually vote.
Tell people we are having an election with new wards and for the first time there is a Māori ward.
Make it easy to vote. Get people to know their candidates and make an informed choice.
Commissioners part distinctive – can say what they like –
Staff – the CE has obligation under S42 of the LGA to
facilitate and foster participation in elections (staff)
1. To design a campaign to help drive voter turnout among
all eligible Tauranga residents - Tauranga City Council's
objective is to reach 50 percent.
2. To communicate some of the attributes and experience
that could make for a strong quality candidate as
described by the Commissioners.
3. To authentically engage with Māori, youth, the disabled
community, and Tauranga's ethnic communities
4. To help people understand the election process and
returning to an elected council
5. To create and use accessible and relatable collateral
6. To present candidate information in a way that’s easy for
voters to understand.
7. To raise awareness of voting in an STV system, so voters
know how their choices play a part in electing Tauranga’s
new Council.
8. To share more about what the Council does and manages
in Tauranga
9. To bring people along on the election journey by sharing
good news stories (like ease of voting, voting for the first
time) to get people interested in voting
Encourage quality candidates
• Candidate College: a mini-conference day
• Attributes of a quality candidate, what we’re looking for, collective responsibility, strategic direction – Commissioners – Q & A session
• What does good governance look like? - Dr Jim Mather (IOD) TBC
• Relationships with tangata whenua and representation in decision-making at TCC – Matire Duncan (TBC)
• Previous councillors talk about their experiences and motivation – Andrew Turner (ex CCC) and Matemoana McDonald
• First three months – what to expect, time commitments, induction and professional development – Marty Grenfell
• Election campaigning – rules, safety, signage, election results – Warwick Lampp (Electoral Officer)
Candidates to register, get information pack, sessions recorded, stalls with GMs major projects in LTP
• Commissioners guest presentations at community events: Tauranga Business Chamber, ethnic events,
Priority One, Youth Breakfasts, Disabled Assembly
• Inform potential candidates what is expected from them if elected
• Candidates can book a time: 1:1 clinic with Commissioners
Objective: get quality candidates interested and nominated, caring about the future of
Tauranga
Social media campaign to drive interest among quality
candidates keen to stand for Council
Bespoke campaign driving registrations for Candidate
College - advertising across major and weekly Tauranga
publications
Priming stage: Short videos sharing information on:
1. What Council does
2. How Council makes decisions
3. What does Council look after in Tauranga
Quality candidate stage:
1. Day in the life
Commissioner’s pitch for why you should stand
Reasons people don’t stand
Reason
Actions
•
Can’t identify with anyone
•
Priming information
- day in the life of a councillor
•
Interested but unsure
- how does council work
- consultation and decision making
- what is an LTP?
•
Videos of Commissioners
•
Position descriptions
•
Candidate information translated into Te Reo,
and other languages
•
Social media campaign to drive interest
•
Promotional material features diversity
Increase voter turnout
Reasons for not voting
Actions
•
Highlight influence mayor and councillors have on important local
•
Council not relevant to everyday
issues (transport, climate change) and encourage people to vote
life
if they care about these issues
•
Other life priorities, family and
•
Appeal to people’s sense of civic duty – democracy depends on
work commitments
you voting and thanking them for doing so
•
Social norm of non-voting in
•
Network nudge – people encourage others in their social
families, neighbourhoods
networks to vote
•
Distrust council
•
Use influencers to promote all of the above
•
Messages on voting envelopes
Outer envelope
“join the thousands of Tauranga residents who vote!”
Freepost return envelope
“Put me with your keys and remember to post me or drop me off
at your local supermarket”
- 2019 Auckland Council campaign I am a voter – core feature. Inspired by behaviour
research by Bryan et all 2011 paper on motivating voter turnout by invoking the self!
Talk about priming phase we need to educate the public about what the council does, and
the role elected members play compared to staff. For this priming stage we want to create
content and collateral that can be easily distributed and shared such as videos (no longer
than 60s) and print collateral – both of which can be translated into other languages.
Increase voter turnout (continued)
Actions
Reason for not voting
•
Video each candidate – response to key
•
Don’t know enough about the candidates to
questions
make an informed choice
-
What are your top 3 priorities for the
city?
-
What do you offer the city?
-
Do you support the strategic direction
set by the Commissioners?
•
Interactive ward maps – put in your address
and candidates pop up – click link back to
information on website
•
Encourage community groups to host
candidate debates – livestream/record
debates
Increase voter turnout (continued)
Reason
Actions
•
Voting is too complex and hard
•
Make voting easy and publicly visible
•
Don’t know how to vote
•
Highly visible voting bins - big orange bins in 19
supermarkets, Tauranga hospital
•
Highly visible special voting booths at 4
libraries
•
STV videos – how it works - STV is as easy as
1,2,3
•
How wards work
•
How Māori electoral option works
•
How to register and vote in a local government
election
Targeting voters less likely
Māori
to vote
•
community liaison person from Electoral
Commission in Tauranga informing about Māori
electoral option
Wellington City Council 2022
•
Te Reo translation of material
•
Specific campaigns develop with Te Rangapu
– print, digital, radio, marae facebook pages
Youth
•
Youth hosting candidate debate
•
Orientation week – universities and Te Pukenga
•
Specific campaigns aimed at participation
25-40 year olds
•
Specific campaigns 25-40 years – lowest
turnout
- Wellington
- Voting turnout lowest in 20-40 year olds - Voting 18-20 year olds higher – voting higher
over 50 year olds and declines 90s - Maori pattern similar to non maori across age
groups- Maori less likely to vote 35% maori voted compared to 46% (non maori).
Wellington new Maori ward in 2022 – 41% of people of Maori descent enrolled in new
Maori ward – 33% of people enrolled in the maori ward voted. 37% of people of Maori
descent enrolled in the other wards voted.
- Voter turnout in Auckland notably lower in some suburbs – strong correlation between
socio-economic deprivation areas and voter turnout – those high socio-economic
deprivation area were less likely to vote than those living in lower deprivation areas.
Auckland similar patterns to 2019 election data.
https://www.knowledgeauckland.org.nz/publications/2022-auckland-local-election-
voter-turnout-who-did-and-did-not-vote/
Social media posts – final week to cast your vote - Wellington CC use of social media
Voting is easy
