{"id":86126,"date":"2025-10-18T10:00:09","date_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86126\/"},"modified":"2025-10-18T10:00:09","modified_gmt":"2025-10-18T10:00:09","slug":"almost-half-of-aucklands-special-local-body-election-votes-discarded","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/86126\/","title":{"rendered":"Almost half of Auckland’s special local body election votes discarded"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nearly half the special votes cast in Auckland’s local body elections have been discarded.<\/p>\n

More than 10,000 special votes were received, delaying the final results by one day until Saturday afternoon \u2014 one week after voting ended.<\/p>\n

Auckland Council said 4162 special votes were deemed invalid, due to incorrect or missing declaration details, or outdated enrolment details.<\/p>\n

In total, 350,677 votes were returned from just 29.3% of enrolled Aucklanders. In 2022’s election, voter turnout was 35.5%.<\/p>\n

Five new councillors out of 20 would join the region’s governing body, alongside returning mayor Wayne Brown, who retained his position by more than 100,000 votes.<\/p>\n

Victoria Short, who stood on the mayor’s ‘Fix Auckland’ ticket, was elected as a councillor for the Albany ward.<\/p>\n

She will incumbent councillor John Watson, but Wayne Walker, who had been a councillor for Albany since the supercity was formed in 2010 and a Rodney District Councillor since 2000, has officially lost his seat.<\/p>\n

Matt Winiata will join Daniel Newman as Manurewa-Papakura ward councillors.<\/p>\n

Former local board member John Gillion has been elected as a North Shore councillor alongside Richard Hills.<\/p>\n

\"North<\/p>\n

North Shore councillor Richard Hills. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n

Bo Burns has been elected to the Howick ward, with the other spot going to incumbent Maurice Williamson.<\/p>\n

Three councillors resigned and did not stand in local elections this year.<\/p>\n

Former Whau councillor Kerrin Leoni only ran for mayor and not for a council seat. Labour candidate Sarah Paterson-Hamlin has taken that spot.<\/p>\n

Council governance and engagement general manager Lou-Ann Ballantyne said the number of special votes was record-breaking, despite almost half of them being thrown out.<\/p>\n

“This unprecedented number of special votes shows people were motivated to participate and then able to easily access voting papers to participate.”<\/p>\n

The council said it would conducting an evaluation and review of this year’s elections process, which would be released publicly before the next election.<\/p>\n

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