Letter to Manukau
13 August 2007

Why vote? I don’t know any of them!

I met a man in Howick the other day and we had a yarn about the up-coming elections. He said he had been a farmer, had retired and shifted into Howick 8 years ago. He admitted that through those years he had never voted in the council elections.

He said he didn’t know any of the candidates and therefore he didn’t think it appropriate to cast a vote for people he didn’t know. His view, although a little different from the normal excuses for not voting, is an all too familiar tale. We actually carry out our democratic duty quite well in parliamentary elections, where in most electorates the turnout is 75-80 per cent. In our city only 39 per cent voted in the Council elections in 2004.

There are just too many

For those in our community who ignore the Council elections a common reason is that there are too many candidates, too many voting papers, too many days to vote, too many other important things to do like go shopping and drink lattes. I have heard it all. You probably have too. But you can’t just pick and choose in a democracy. Our forbears didn’t just fight for our democratic rights and freedoms on a whim. It is not really right therefore that we should ignore half of them.

It’s our local democracy that determines how we feel about the place in which we live, shapes our homes, streets, parks and malls. Local democracy determines much about the state of our environment and has the ability to impact upon our sense of personal well being and safety. How we handle these crucial factors in our lives in Manukau can’t remain in the too hard basket for 59 per cent of us!

Decision 2007

I want our community to feel a bit more empowered about this voting issue. It would be great for them to vote with a bit more purpose knowing that their vote will decide whether we finally get on top of graffiti, act to limit liquor licensing outlets, sort out our public transport woes, get our old townships up-graded, put some downward pressure on rate increases, better plan the long term future of our rural and coastal towns, make our streets safer, strengthen our sport clubs and get all our kids more active, connect our airport and seaport by rail, better organise our water and waste water and plan for a green waste recycling scheme.

I am not going to wait for the electoral officer to perform some marketing miracle. Of all the “reasons for not voting”, the one that I think we can do something about is the time for voting. Everyone knows to vote on one day in the parliamentary elections. I believe that we can do something similar this year.

Oh, we’ve got a few weeks. I’ll vote later…

In 80 per cent of our homes people get their Council election papers, open them up, see all the forms and stick them on the kitchen table or on the top of the fridge and say, I’ll do it tomorrow. For 60 per cent of us tomorrow never comes. After the last election so many people rang me to commiserate and admit that the papers were still sitting where they left them. I found these calls particularly comforting (not).

Voting Day

I am therefore going to promote a Voting Day. This is the day that we all vote, in our churches, homes, and clubs.

VOTING DAY IN MANUKAU CITY THIS YEAR WILL BE SUNDAY 30TH SEPTEMBER.

All voting papers will be sent out by the 26 September and so by Sunday all should have received their papers and some would have voted by that time. Sunday is church and family day. It is a perfect day to remember what is important in life and celebrate and give thanks for our democracy by voting for our next generation of local representatives.

Let’s promote Voting Day – 30 September this year

It’s time to put some local into our democracy in Manukau.

Len Brown
Mayoral Candidate - Manukau 2007

ENDS

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