ElectionsKōwhiringa pōti

Election day is Saturday 8th October 2022 and voting closes at 12 noon.  The voting period starts on Friday 16 September 2022.

Voting takes place by postal voting. If you are registered on the Parliamentary Electoral Roll, voting papers will be sent to your registered address from Friday 16 September to Wednesday 21 September.

If you do not receive a voting paper in the mail, or spoil your voting paper, contact the electoral officer and ask about doing a special vote.

If you qualify to do so you can apply for a special vote by contacting the Electoral Officer at your local council. Special votes are available during the three-week voting period where electors:

• names do not appear on the final electoral roll, but who qualify
• did not receive a voting document
• spoil or damage a voting document previously posted to them
• names appear on the unpublished electoral roll.

Anyone casting a special vote is legally required to complete a statutory declaration to ensure that each person only casts one vote.

Then you may qualify to vote in both areas for the local authority elections.

You have the chance to have your say about how your rates are spent no matter where you live with the Ratepayer Electoral Roll. In order for your voting papers to arrive before the election you must register for the Ratepayer Electoral Roll before Friday 12 August 2022 by noon.

Non-resident-Ratepayer-Electors-Form-2022.pdf

The Ratepayer Electoral Roll is an electoral roll that records voters who pay rates on a property in a territorial authority (city or district council) outside of the area they usually live to vote as a non-resident ratepayer elector in that district.

For example if you have a beach house, holiday home, business or whanau land in Wellington but normally live in Napier.

Please note that you may enrol, but you do not have to.

If you think you, or someone you know, might be eligible for the ratepayer electoral roll, you will need to obtain an Enrolment Form for Ratepayer Electors from the council where you pay your rates e.g. if you live in Southland and own a holiday home in Blenheim then you need to contact the Marlborough District Council for an enrolment form.

To be recorded on the Ratepayer Electoral Roll you must submit your enrolment form with the Electoral Officer at the council where you wish to register for the roll before 12 August 2022. All registered voters who enrolled before this date will appear on the final Ratepayer Electoral Roll and be sent voting papers in the mail.

No. Only one ratepayer elector can be nominated per property irrespective of the number of properties owned by the individual, company, society, trust, partnership or other organisation.

For example if you and your siblings own a property only one of you can vote as the entitlement is from paying rates on a property not as an individual living in the area.

No. Only one ratepayer elector can be nominated per property irrespective of the number of properties owned by the individual, company, society, trust, partnership or other organisation e.g. the authorised officer or largest shareholder.

There may be internal rules which dictate who may be listed as the eligible voter, if not, it is best to talk to your fellow owners and agree upon who can vote and seek further advice from your local council electoral officer.

No. You are only eligible for the ratepayer roll for other territorial authorities where you pay rates not for different wards within the same council.

For example, you may own the house you live on in Wairoa's Queen Street and pay rates for the home you own in Mahanga. In this case you are not eligible for inclusion on the Ratepayer Electoral Roll.

The Ratepayer Electoral Roll allows people who own one home but live in another to vote for the council where their rates are paid. Situations that is applicable to include having to move town to secure work but keeping a home, owning a holiday home, or owning a property where you plan to retire outside of the region where you currently live. It allows property owners to have a say in how the community is shaped and what the area will be like in the future.

No, if you don’t register in time you can still cast a vote as a ratepayer elector but it needs to be cast as a Special Vote. This means you need to request special voting papers and make a statutory declaration. After the election closes Special Votes are counted last as additional checks need to be performed to make sure the vote cast is a legal one.

Yes. You need to enrol as a ratepayer elector to be added to the Ratepayer Electoral Roll.  Complete the following form and forward to the Electoral Officer.

Enrolment Form for Ratepayer Elector

If the ratepayer is a Trust, or company, there may be internal rules that dictates who can be listed as the eligible voter. If not, it is best to talk to your fellow owners and agree who can vote and seek further advice from your local council electoral officer.

Yes, you are able to register as an unpublished ratepayer voter. As your details are not published and provided to Electoral Officers this means you need to contact the Electoral Officer at the council where you are eligible to vote as a ratepayer elector vote and apply for Special Vote using the same process as you would to vote in your residential electorate.

Yes.

To check if you are enrolled to vote visit www.vote.nz

The Electoral Officer has full responsibility for running the election.

The electoral officer is:

• Juanita Savage
  Wairoa District Council
  Coronation Square, Queen Street, Wairoa 4108 PO Box 54, Wairoa 4160
  +64 6 838 7309
  juanita@wairoadc.govt.nz

The deputy electoral officer is:

• Courtney Hayward
  Wairoa District Council
  Coronation Square, Queen Street, Wairoa 4108 PO Box 54, Wairoa 4160
  +64 6 838 7309
   courtney@wairoadc.govt.nz

Electors will be able to vote for the mayor, ward councillors and Hawke’s Bay Regional Council members.

There are no longer district health board elections.

The current Wairoa District Council representation arrangements are as below:

- the mayor (elected at large)
- 3 councillors (elected from the Wairoa General Ward)
- 3 councillors (elected from the Wairoa Māori Ward).

The Mayor:

• presides at Council meetings;
• attends and participates at meetings of committees and working parties;
• reads agenda and other materials before meetings;
• leads the Council and co-ordinates Council political activity;
• speaks on behalf of the Council;
• represents the Council on related organisations, where appointed;
• attends and participates at conferences and seminars;
• attends to complaints and enquiries from members of the public;
• presides at civic ceremonies;
• hosts visiting groups, including overseas delegations;
• attends and speaks at local functions, sometimes opening them;
• declares a state of civil defence emergency in the district if the need arises.

The Councillors:

• participate in strategic and long-term planning for the whole district;
• develop policy across a wide range of activities and services;
• represent the district at functions as required;
• review and develops bylaws for the district;
• advocate on a wide range of issues;
• coordinates and forms partnerships with other spheres of government and other agencies;
• participate in the appointment and performance review of the Chief Executive;
• act on all these matters within a legislative and regulatory framework, and setting a budget and rates;
• monitor the performance of the Council organisation.

You must be a New Zealand citizen and your name must be on the Parliamentary Electoral Roll (anywhere in New Zealand).

You will need to have two electors registered in the area of the election you are standing for to nominate you – e.g. if you stand as a Māori Ward councillor, the nominators will need to be registered within the district on the Māori roll. (Note the candidate does not need to reside in the district in which he/she is standing, but will need to disclose that fact in his/her candidate profile statement).

The nominators must also be on the Parliamentary Electoral Roll at the address they are listed on the nomination paper (which must be in the area that they are nominating the person for).

Nominations open on Friday 15 July 2022. If you would like a nomination paper and candidate information handbook sent out, please contact the electoral officer closer to this date. Nomination papers will also be available on Council’s website, with the candidate information booklet available also.

Candidate campaigning can commence any time prior to the election (no time restriction), but any expenditure made, within or outside the three month applicable period before election day, must be accounted for.

You will need to pay a nomination deposit of $200 GST inclusive. This deposit applies to each election (position) you stand for.

Your nomination deposit can be paid by cash, EPTPOS or electronic bank transfer. Credit cards or cheques will not be accepted.

If you poll greater than 25% of the lowest polling successful candidate (for FPP elections) you will receive your nomination deposit back.

Your nomination must be received by the close of nominations (12 noon on Friday 12 August 2022).

Nothing formal. Elected members come from all walks of life and generally have a will/desire to serve the community.

All (or some) of the following capabilities will be useful in the elected member role:
- quality decision-making
- political acumen
- leadership
- cultural awareness
- strategic thinking
- knowledge and understanding of Wairoa District Council and local government
- communication and engagement
- relationship building and collaboration

No, not for the Wairoa District Council.

Three years.

No, but you must be on the Parliamentary Electoral Roll (anywhere in New Zealand) and be a New Zealand citizen. You will however need to disclose whether or not you reside in the area you are standing for in the candidate profile statement.

The two people who nominate you must be on the Parliamentary Electoral Roll within the area you are standing for, i.e. General Roll or Maori Roll.

There is a limit on what you can spend on your campaign and it relates to the population of the area you are standing for.  

The maximum amount that can be spent by a candidate cannot exceed the limits set out below:

For example, a candidate for either the Wairoa General Ward or the Wairoa Māori Ward (which has a population in the range of 'Up to 4,999') can spend up to $3,500 inclusive of GST.   A candidate for Mayor (which has a population in the range of '5,000 - 9,999') can spend up to $7,000 inclusive of GST.

If you stand for more than one position, the amount you can spend is the highest amount for one position. You cannot add positions together to allow you to spend more than the limit.

All candidates are required to lodge an electoral donations and expenses return within 55 days after the day on which the successful candidates are declared to be elected (9 December 2022).

If a candidate is outside New Zealand on this day, the return must be filed within 76 days after election result day.

If a return is not submitted within the required time period, the non-return will be advised to the New Zealand Police for enforcement.

The return needs to be received before a candidate nomination deposit is refunded if appropriate.

Forward your complaint to the Electoral Officer via email or phone 06 838 7309.

You will need to call the electoral officer on 06 838 7309.

You will need to call the electoral officer on 06 838 7309.

You will need to call the electoral officer on 06 838 7309.

Wairoa District Council has adopted the following policy for temporary signs related to central government and local body elections:

• no signs will be permitted on council property including roads (including road reserve), streets, street furniture, bus shelterse, public toilets and
  parks & reserves;
• all signs are to be located on private property with the consent of the property owner;
• the period of display of election hoardings shall be restricted to two (2) months prior to any election;
• all such signs must be removed before the election day;
• signs shall not exceed 3.0m2 in area and shall not be more than 4.0m in height;
• signs shall be securely braced to carry wind loads for 60 days;
• signs/hoardings must be removed if they are considered by council to be unsafe or constitute a traffic hazard, such as blocking lines of sight on an    intersection.

Election signs can only be displayed during the period commencing two months prior to election day and must be removed before midnight on the day before election day – i.e. from 12.01am Monday 8 August 2022 until midnight Friday 7 October 2022.

FPP (first past the post) electoral system is used for the Wairoa District Council and the Hawke's Bay Regional Council.

The candidate or candidates that gets the most votes wins.

You should mark those you want to vote for with a tick in the circle.  Do not vote for more than the number of candidates shown in the instructions.