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Neighbours ‘should vote as issues important’

JustinWong

‘‘You’ll feel like a legend afterwards too.’’ Regan Dooley Voter

With a week until voting in the local body election closes, four Wellington voters who have dispatched their ballot papers are urging others to do so.

As of Thursday afternoon, the voter turnout for Wellington City Council stood at only 9.9%. Upper Hutt was on 8%, while Lower Hutt and Porirua were both on 7.9% and Kāpiti Coast on 6.4%

Public servant Chantalle Smith has also dropped her papers into an orange ballot box. Her message to other Wellingtonians who are still hesitant about voting? ‘‘Please vote’’.

‘‘I always vote. I’ve always been told if you don’t vote, you don’t really get a say to complain about anything,’’ Smith said.

‘‘There’s so much information out there. It’s not hard to Google people’s names and to find information about [the candidates],’’ she also said.

Elliot Blyth, a climate activist, rode on his bike to post his vote. He wanted others to do so in order to have their voices heard.

‘‘Voting is a way for me that I can make sure people I agree with and ideas that I like get heard,’’ Blyth

said.

‘‘It’s important because the city council and the regional council make decisions about things that everyone uses.’’

To the undecided, ‘‘just get out and vote,’’ he said. ‘‘It takes a bit of research but you only have to find a couple of your favourite people.’’

‘‘It’s not super hard – it only takes halfan-hour, but the benefits are huge.’’

Regan Dooley, who has been blogging about the Island Bay cycleway since 2014, said his vote is for his children.

‘‘Local government tends to be dominated by people who don’t fully reflect the diversity of people who live here,’’ he said.

‘‘You’ll feel like a legend afterwards too.’’

Freelance writer Tony Burton, who voted in Wellington, said when he worked as a civil servant, he saw the power voters have on politicians first-hand.

‘‘Even if you don’t like the candidates, just participating and making your voice heard is a good thing,’’ he said.

There were many issues like roads and housing that people care about and that’s why they should fill out their voting papers, Burton said.

‘‘It’s important to vote in council elections because the decisions that are made affect people in Wellington.’’

Dr Jess Berentson-Shaw, the co-director of think-tank The Workshop, says people are likely to copy an action if they see other people doing it, with examples including Covid-19 vaccination, where stories of people overcoming vaccine hesitancy convinced more people to get vaccinated.

‘‘When we see other people that we know doing an action, and we see it kind of in a social setting, like a newspaper, we were much more inclined to do that action ourselves,’’ she said.

‘‘I think the best thing people can do is talk about how they have voted, why they voted, or when they got into the notion.’’

Berentson-Shaw also believed those who ‘‘couldn’t be bothered’’ with voting should do so because it will make them feel the council represents the things they care about.

Voting closes at noon on Saturday,

October 8.

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2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-10-01T07:00:00.0000000Z

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