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Rotorua has bucked the national trend for falling voter turnout but the wider Bay of Plenty Regional Council tally plummeted.
With special votes uncounted, the preliminary tally from Sunday shows 46.6 per cent of the Rotorua Lakes Council constituents cast a vote, slightly up on 46.4 per cent in 2019.
Nationally, a record low of about 36 per cent of voters participated compared to 42 per cent in the last election.
The Local Government New Zealand president called this a "system failure" but another election expert says turnout was not bad everywhere and there are ways to improve it.
Rotorua Lakes Council acting deputy chief executive district leadership and democracy Greg Kieck said it was pleasing to have a higher voter turnout than the past three elections in Rotorua.
"Our goal is always to increase voter participation and, while we achieved that, we would obviously like to see it even higher.
"Why people don't vote and how we increase participation in future will be a discussion point for us locally, as it already is nationally."
Kieck said the council put a concerted effort into promoting the election and voter participation and anecdotally there certainly appeared to be a high level of interest.
As of October 4, the council had spent $114,567 on election-related marketing and promotion.
New Rotorua deputy mayor Sandra Kai Fong said the increase in voting may have been due to the fact that the electorate needed to vote in a new mayor, and the city had ongoing issues.
"We've got some significant issues facing Rotorua as well, people could have been motivated by that."
Still, Kai Fong said more work needed to be done to get an increase in voter participation.
"We need to do more work to make it easier for people to participate. The postal voting seemed to be quite a barrier."
Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby. Photo / Andrew Warner
Preliminary data for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, as of Sunday, revealed it had a 26 per cent voter turnout, compared with 43 per cent in 2019.
The council's chief electoral officer, Warrick Lampp, said the regional council voter returns may have been impacted by the lack of a Tauranga City Council election this year.
The city is led by Government-appointed commissioners, with its next council set to be elected when their term ends in July 2024.
Lampp said voters may be "less invested" in the outcome of a regional council race compared to the mayoral and city councillor contests that would usually also appear on their voting papers.
He said outside of Auckland, voter turnout was up in many councils including Christchurch, Wellington and Invercargill.
His suggestions for improving turnout included a longer voting period to make up for postal system struggles, online voting, promoting a voting day, adding email addresses to the electoral rolls and standardising more local government voting systems and rules across the country.
Local Government New Zealand president Stuart Crosby said national turnouts of below 50 per cent across local government elections in 2019 and 2022 were "not good enough".
"People have fought hard for democracy over the centuries and in New Zealand, we have a good, honest, transparent system.
"We have to create an environment where people want to participate."
Crosby said the national low voter turnout could be summed up as a "system failure".
"It's not just one issue," Crosby said. "It's not just the postal system, all the component parts need to be looked at to see if we can improve the voter turnout."
Crosby, who was also the highest-polling Tauranga general constituency candidate in the regional council election, said the lack of public participation in local politics did not reflect a lack of interest.
"The biggest issue is the connection between the communities and their councils. For whatever reason it seems [communities and councils] have become more distant and that's shown at the ballot box."
Crosby said some of the feedback he had received showed people did not feel their voices were heard and so did not see the point in voting.
"Local Government New Zealand has called for a really solid piece of research to be done immediately."
Crosby said there was a better understanding of the role of the regional council in rural areas compared to urban Tauranga.
Voter turnout across other councils in the Bay of Plenty region has followed the national downward trend.
The Bay of Plenty Regional Council's total budget for election marketing was $25,000 for regional council-led promotions. The council also contributed $5000 to the nationwide Vote 2022 campaign.
On Saturday, the number of voter returns for the Western Bay of Plenty District Council was 31.9 per cent compared to 39.1 in the last election in spite of a contest for a new mayor.
Council chief executive John Holyoake said the result was disappointing.
Western Bay of Plenty chief executive John Holyoake. Photo / NZME
James Denyer, the new Western Bay of Plenty District Council mayor, had the same reaction.
He said the option of online voting was something that should "definitely" be explored to help improve turnout.
Local election voter turnout rates have dropped in the Bay of Plenty, except in Rotorua. Photo / Laura Smith
"I do think it's time for us to have to work with local government and, say, from local government's perspective, 'What do you think will bring the greatest engagement with your voters?'"
