It's university students who are called on to vote by University of Otago politics student Jarred Griffiths - see his student newspaper article, Why local politics actually matter.
Alienated youth and other demographics
Young people are normally seen as the biggest problem - or victim - of declining voter turnout. This is well expressed in Eva Corlett's RNZ article, Young voters feel locked out of local body politics. Here's the key part: "This year, only two thirds of people under 30 are enrolled to vote, but all age groups over 35 have nearly 100 percent enrolment. A recent Auckland University-led mayoral debate drew a crowd of just 40 students, a reflection of the low turnout of younger voters in local elections. At the debate, some came to listen, some just to eat lunch but all of the students RNZ spoke to said local body elections were inaccessible. They said it wasn't apathy which was the problem, it was poor political process. Many students expressed their frustration at the lack of centralised information about the candidates and their policies."
According to Janine Rankin this is a self-reinforcing problem: "If young people do not vote, then what is the point of candidates' trying to win their favour?... And that sets up what some of the experts call "a cycle of neglect". Councillors tend to work for their constituency, not the others. Even if they try to represent other interests, they often don't quite 'get it'." - see: The young, the very young, the footsore and the lost.
If young voters could be brought into the process, TVNZ reports the impact could be significant - see: Young people seen as 'sleeping giants' for impact they can have on local elections.
For further details on the age issue, see Sally Lindsay's NBR article, How many voters will front up? Not many, based on stats and failed campaigns (paywalled). She reports that in the last elections, "Surveys found the highest voter turnout was in the 70-plus age group, at 89%, and the lowest was in the 18-29 age group, at 34%." She says this isn't about to improve: "It's predicted the number of voters in local council elections will drop even further as more young people take less of an interest and forsake the ballot box."
See also Auckland University politics student Weiyi Zhang's research on the demographics of non-participation in local elections: Age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and declining voter turnout in Auckland's local elections. This shows that those groups who are significantly less inclined to vote include youth, the poor, and Asians.
The director of The Asian Network Inc is also quoted about Asian non-voting in Kurt Bayer's article, Candidates could change voter apathy. He suggests that it's a more recent problem for Asians than in the past: "People were quite proactive, they were fresh migrants but these days I can see that it is diminishing." He puts the problem down to a lack of Asian candidates: "If the candidates can't connect to the minds and needs of the community, then how can people be inspired to vote?"
The big problems with local government elections
Perhaps the problem with non-voting isn't so much with the voters, lack of information, or various demographic issues, but more with the failure of local government institutions and politicians to provide anything worth voting for. Certainly there are reports of many election campaigns lacking dynamism, real substantive issues being debated, or an even a real choice of options. In this case, maybe it makes sense not to vote.
Today's column by Dave Armstrong reports on the Wellington mayoral campaign and one rather passionless mayoral meeting in particular - see: Mayoral race unpredictable but little between candidates.
He suggests the problem is the lack of political differences between the candidates, and the lack of big issues being debated: "though there are eight candidates from which to choose, it's difficult finding that much difference between many of them. At the Prefab meeting, genial fringe 'Locality Party' candidate Johnny Overton, in between advocating revolution, commented that those sharing the stage with him were 'all the same; all neo-liberals'. He's sort of right."
Simon Wilson believes that Auckland is suffering from the same lack of choice and debate - he has a feature in the latest Metro magazine that suggests frontrunners Phil Goff and Victoria Crone have relatively similar programmes, and that these aren't that different to the incumbent - see: The man in the middle.
For Wilson, this politically centrist and bland race is a major problem, because "Auckland has a crisis. Actually, it has several crises. The litany is well known: housing, transport, health and education issues in the poorer communities" etc. Furthermore, public confidence in the city council has plummeted: "In a Citizen Insights Monitor survey released by Auckland Council in June, just 15 per cent of us said we were satisfied with the council's performance. Only 17 per cent of us said we trust it. This is disgraceful. Councils elsewhere commonly enjoy more than 50 per cent support; in a 2015 survey in Brisbane, satisfaction with the delivery of services was at 70 per cent. These results should have led to a major reckoning inside the council, with public acknowledgment they were getting things badly wrong and a publicly announced commitment to fix the problem. Incredibly, there's been no sign of that at all."
Wilson concludes that "A big vision is required, all over again, and bold execution has to follow." But he seems unconvinced that Phil Goff or any other candidate are up the task.
Interestingly, one mayoral candidate, Mark Thomas, has some similar complaints, saying "this hasn't been a contest about ideas, it's been a contest about profile" - see the Herald's Auckland mayoral candidate Mark Thomas asked to withdraw from race.
Political scientist Barry Gustafson has also commented on the failure of the Auckland mayoral candidates to convince the public. He is reported as believing that "not one candidate's election manifesto excites" and "neither have any delivered sober yet brilliant solutions to Auckland's problems that inspire" - see Simon Maude's Boring Auckland mayoral candidates can't trump 'The Donald'. Furthermore, the candidates aren't talking about the issues that matter: "It's a lack of interest, people register things they're really interested in, they're interested in some issues, transport, tax and housing, they're really annoyed and worried about a lot things but it doesn't necessarily translate into people because they're not sure where [the candidates] stand on these issues."
This makes for a boring campaign, which the Herald's Bernard Orsman has reported as being a "battle of accountants" without any big ideas - see: Mayoral hopefuls share their vision for future of Auckland.
In the end, it looks likely that voter turnout at the election will once again be incredibly low - it could even drop below 40 percent. Surely it's this result that sends the strongest message that democracy isn't working.
Finally, for satire about the difference your vote might make, here's Ben Uffindell's account of the heated debate and struggle on the Albert-Eden Community Board - see: Stakes high in local board election as outcome could affect placement of tree relative to curb.
