Received your voting papers? Great! Filled them out? Amazing! But now what do you do with them?
Local elections are done by postal vote, but with fewer New Zealand Post boxes around these days, voters have some different options for dropping off their voting papers this year.
You can send them in the traditional post, or drop them in one of the 12 bright orange ballot boxes located in handy places across Porirua.
Votes can be dropped in the orange ballot boxes up until 12 noon on Saturday 8 October. The ballot boxes will be secured inside at the listed locations, and cleared daily by an electoral official.
Make sure to check out the ‘How to Vote’ webpage on the Council website for a map of the ballot box locations, as well as where you can find New Zealand Post boxes and post centres around Porirua.
If you are using a New Zealand Post box, it is recommended that you post your vote before Tuesday 4 October to make sure it’s received in time for the cut-off date of 8 October.
If you need to cast a special vote, you can do this at our Council front counter at 16 Cobham Court.
Still deciding who to vote for?
You can check out profiles of all the candidates, plus short videos, on our website: poriruacity.govt.nz/elections
Ballot boxes can be found in the following places:
Pukerua Bay Library, 6A Wairaka Rd, Pukerua Bay
New World Paremata, 93-97 Mana Esplanade, Paremata
Titahi Bay Library, 18A Whitehouse Rd, Titahi Bay
Whitby Library, 69C Discovery Dr, Whitby
Countdown Aotea, 3 Whitford Brown Ave, Papakōwhai
Cannons Creek Library, 18 Warspite Ave, Cannons Creek
Porirua City Library, 17 Parumoana St
Pak ’n Save Porirua, 12 Parumoana St
Te Rauparaha Arena, 17 Parumoana St
Countdown Porirua, corner Parumoana St and Lyttelton Ave
Porirua City Council Administration Building, 16 Cobham Court
New World Porirua, 2 Lyttelton Ave
Voting papers for the 2022 local elections were posted out on 16 September and should be arriving in letterboxes this week.
If you haven’t enrolled to vote, voting papers will not be sent to you, but you can contact us to see if you can cast a special vote – do this at [email protected] or call 04 237 5089.
The upcoming local elections will decide who represents us on our city and regional councils. The people elected to local councils get to make decisions about our daily lives and the future of our towns and cities.
This year Porirua residents can vote for the Mayor and Council, two councillors in the Porirua-Tawa constituency of the Greater Wellington Regional Council, and the Hutt Mana Charitable Trust.
Voting for the Porirua City Council is done via the Single Transferable Vote (STV) method. This method follows a ranking system, where you number the candidates in order from your favourite to least favourite.
When filling out your voting paper, put a 1 next to the candidate you most want to win, a 2 next to your next favourite, a 3 for the next person and so on.
Please note that you do not have to rank all the candidates – you can choose to just put a 1 next to your preferred candidate, and no others.
If there are candidates you specifically do not want to see elected, don’t rank them at all, or rank lower than the rest of the candidates on your voting paper.
You can rank as many or as few candidates as you like, and the more candidates you rank on your voting paper, the more your vote will count toward the final result.
If you rank more than one person with a 1 or any other number, or use ticks instead of numbers, your vote will not be counted, so make sure the paper is filled out carefully!
20 Sep 2022
