Auckland Council pushes for online voting trial
Published: 24 May 2018
Auckland Council’s Governing Body has given its in-principle support for conducting an online voting trial in the 2019
local government elections.
At today’s meeting, the Governing Body approved the council’s submission on the Local Electoral Matters Bill. The
submission supports amendments to the Local Electoral Act 2001 to increase democratic participation and enable trials on
alternative voting methods, such as online voting, to occur,
With the Bill currently before the Justice Select Committee, the Governing Body gave its in-principle support to running
an online voting trial among a small subset of voters in the next local government election, subject to a number of
conditions being met.
These conditions include enabling legislation being passed in time to allow an online voting system to be implemented
for 2019, online security risks being managed appropriately, confirmation of an acceptable level of costs, and final
Governing Body approval before any trial goes ahead.
Mayor Phil Goff says it’s inevitable that online voting is the future and if we continue to rely only on the postal
system we risk losing a whole generation of voters who experience the world online.
“We need to adapt to changing circumstances with how people participate in democracy, access information and
communicate. There is strong support for online voting with 74 per cent of Aucklanders telling us after the 2016
election that they would prefer to vote online.
"It won’t solve all of the problems of low voter turnout at local elections but we should be looking to facilitate a
21st century way of voting that is more accessible for our growing and diverse communities.
“Online voting could work as effectively here as it does overseas but it is sensible to trial it first rather than jump
in and do it across the board” says Mayor Goff.
Auckland Council will now investigate if a trial is feasible. It will explore joining with other councils to run one
trial together, run a request for proposal process to engage a preferred vendor and establish a timetable and budget.
If a trial is deemed feasible a formal proposal will be presented to the Governing Body for final approval.
Other decisions made at the Governing Body were:
Decision-making delegation to Waiheke Local Board over public land Matiatia
The Waiheke Local Board has been delegated authority to make decisions on non-regulatory land use and development over
public land at Matiatia, Waiheke Island.
The board can lead development of public land at Matiatia which has stalled since the former Auckland City Council
bought the land in 2005.
Development of the land is expected to include open space, commercial long-term leases, visitor and cultural
infrastructure and transport services. Auckland Transport and the Waiheke Local Board will work together to agree
transport outcomes for the land.
See OurAuckland for more information about this decision.
Recommendations from the Appointments, Performance Review and Value for Money Committee - Value for Money (s17A) Review
programme
Following the recommendations from the Appointments, Performance Review and Value for Money Committee, the Governing
Body approved the terms of reference for the next two value for money reviews.
These are the Auckland Council Group Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) and the Group Customer Services
value for money reviews which will commence in May 2018.
The terms of reference are attached to the Governing Body agenda.
Local Board and Public Input
Waiheke Local Board Chair Cath Handley spoke to the Governing Body about the Board’s request to be delegated decision
making over public land at Matiatia.