Have your say from home

It’s that time again. The threeyearly opportunity for everyone to vote in their local elections. That’s mayoralties, (gosh, don’t we hear a lot about Auckland?) councils, community boards, trusts and district health boards.

In times gone by, voting in the local body elections was a matter of turning up at your local kindy, school or hall before 7pm on a Saturday, being slightly embarrassed at having to declare your full name out loud, grabbing the forms, dashing behind the screen and the task was completed. Civic duty done for the next three years.

You returned home knowing you had done your bit for the process of democracy.

So why, in the last 25 years or so, has the local authority voter turnout been on a steady decline? How steady? Nationally 57% of eligible voters managed to get to a polling place in 1989 and by the last local elections in 2013, that statistic had fallen to an appalling 41%. So way less than half of the population bother to exercise their democratic right to have a say. Common excuses include ‘I don’t know the candidates’ (read the paper or attend a candidates meeting near you). ‘It doesn’t really affect me’ (don’t you use the roads, water , sewerage etc?) ‘What difference can I make ?’ (Yes, it’s an instant gratification world, but you wouldn’t like it if you didn’t have the opportunity) and there are many other cop outs.

The simple and sad commentary on this is that, despite all the issues that affect every one of us in the area where we live and bring up our families, the turnout has been in decline over the last generation or so. It’s fallen dramatically and only in 2010 did a slight upward trend appear, with polling coming just days after the 2010 Canterbury Earthquake and with heightened interest in the ‘Super City’ concept in Auckland.

So here’s my early plea for everyone to have their vote and you can do it in the comfort and privacy of your own home. Don’t leave the voting papers on the fridge, the sideboard or in the centre console of the car. Grab them and do what you have to do with them. Healthy democracy depends on everyone voting. If its good enough for people to stand for office, then we all should take the opportunity to say what we think. You owe it to yourself and to your family. Now, it’s even easier than going to a booth. The polls close on Saturday October 8.

Once you have posted your papers, you’ll feel good.