When the votes for the local election close on October 8, there will be only one disappointed candidate in the Stratford district.
That’s because incumbent mayor Neil Volzke will have been elected unopposed, as will Clive Tongaawhikau in the Māori district and the six candidates in the urban district: Min McKay, Mathew Watt, Jono Erwood, John Sandford, Ellen Hall and Annette Dudley.
Only the rural section has any competition, with five people — Grant Boyde, Amanda Harris, Vaughan Jones, Steve Beck and Nicole McDonald — vying for the four available seats.
So what has the campaign trail been like when there is very little competition? For Boyde, who has already completed two terms, it was the usual story: get out and focus on actually getting people to vote.
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On Tuesday, Stratford’s voter numbers were the best of the county councils in the region at 23%. By comparison, South Taranaki’s stood at 19.2% and New Plymouth’s at 16.9%, rising to 18.2% on Wednesday.
Simon O’Connor / Stuff
Councilor Grant Boyde hopes to be re-elected for his third term in the rural General District.
“I’m a big proponent of democracy, so the more people who can vote, the better.
“It’s great that we have elections in the rural district. I think that’s fantastic, it shows that people are really interested in the rural area to get into the city council. I really love that.”
Despite the number of voters in Stratford being above New Plymouth’s, Boyde said they were still “very bad”.
“I think there’s a lot of complacency. I think people feel a little bit burned by Covid, with so many things happening and frustrations with what’s happening in our economy, I think people have forgotten.”
The farmer’s solution was to look at electronic voting to encourage people to have their say.
“The government has never really done it, but I think that might be an option because pretty much everyone has a cell phone, but still the paper form.”
McDonald agreed that online voting was a good option and said she was “very disappointed” at the low voter count.
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Nicole McDonald campaigned in 2019 to become part of the rural Stratford District Council, but was unsuccessful.
“Maybe people would do it more because everyone has their phone and everyone is connected to the internet. Mail is slowly going away.”
McDonald campaigned in the 2019 election but was unsuccessful, saying its tactics this time were similar to those three years ago.
“People know I’m a farmer and I have my own business, so I hope that continues with the fact that I’m known.”
Born in Stratford, McDonald said running in the SDC elections was different compared to the New Plymouth District Council.
“Because we are such a rural community, everyone seems to know everyone.
“We’re a bit more relaxed, which is why we all live in Stratford. It’s just a bit more of a relaxed lifestyle.”
And compared to the New Plymouth election, that was exactly what it was.
There are eight mayoral candidates on the New Plymouth District Council and only one of the five wards has a candidate who is elected unopposed.
However, the South Taranaki district council is as relaxed as SDC, with: only two mayoral candidates and all candidates for the four general wards are elected unopposed. However, there are two candidates competing for the seat in each of the two Māori divisions of the council and the community board competition.
Stratford candidate Amanda Harris is also encouraging people to vote through her campaign.
ANDY JACKSON/Things
Amanda Harris has just finished her first term and to be re-elected for a second time, she focused on what worked well last time.
The mother of two said she hoped for a second term and wanted to focus on what worked well for her last time.
“I dropped a leaflet in all the rural post boxes in the district. I think it was about 1,300 and I was seen at several events.”
The biggest difference Harris noted was that there was no election for the urban general district this year.
Jones and Beck, the other candidates for the rural district, could not be reached for comment on their campaigns.
Voting closes at 12 noon on 8 October.