The status quo is voting. Are you?
A strategic voting guide (adapted from Tina Ngata's) and how I voted in Local Body Elections 2025 Aotearoa New Zealand.
So I'm tucked up in bed as I try to work out something that’s rattling in my brain for the past few weeks… how on earth do I figure out my vote… Hamilton City Council candidates are mostly a dire bunch, so that helped narrow it down, but I still had questions.
Should I only rank people I like? What if I reallyyyy don’t want someone to win? Should I change strategy then? If so, how am I meant to work this out on my own?!
After drafting a couple different versions of my rankings and spending a good few hours online checking and double-checking what I thought I knew, I had done it. I voted. Phew. But I realise this whole process is probably one of the biggest barriers to voting for local government, and because I’m a nerd and wrote my process down, I figured I’d share it with you, just in case it’s what you need to actually drop that ballot off.
Rimu’s guide to voting (adapted from Tina Ngata’s)
“Hot tip: if there are people you really DON'T want to be in power, use your vote to strategically vote in ANYONE but them,” Tina Ngata.
1. Split the candidates.
Normal competent people vs the conspiracy theorists/fringe/perennials.
Check out Paul… The Other One’s Instagram Reels or his website to know how to spot them.
2. Eliminate the conspiracy group, and split the remainder again.
The ones you like and the ones you don’t (e.g. by progressive or conservative policies).
Check out Vote For Te Tiriti, Policy.nz, Gen Zero’s scorecards, the Green Party’s candidate finder, Third Space Aotearoa’s guide to identifying values, Renters United’s 2022 scorecards, your unions and community organisations.
3. Vote your favourites first - incumbents and newbies.
You can bump newbies higher up the list if you want to give them a bigger chance.
4. Follow these by ones you think could be ok.
You should only vote for people you’d be able to live with being your representative.
5. You don't have to use all your votes.
Voting like this will help keep harmful candidates out.
Democracy - luxe edition: The Ratepayer Roll
Oi, did you know?
Your least favourite politicians like Winston Peters, David Seymour, and Christopher Luxon,
Your landlord who keeps putting up the rent but won’t repair your flat, and
The local business owner who wants to pay less money to the council and doesn’t care that your local library will be shut down to afford it
are all probably voting TWICE this election.
There’s this absolutely munted rule that allows landlords to vote in each council district, local board area, and community board area where they own property. In 2016, a landlord voted in seven (!!) different local elections.
Most politicians own a home, but many own multiple. Luxon himself owned seven when he first became PM. Just last week, it came out that a National MP put 25 properties in a family trust before facing financial declaration rules.
And as Renters United puts it, “this roll incentivises candidates for local government to unfairly prioritise the views of landlords and property owners over those of low incomes and renters.”
If that wasn’t bad enough, this rule also covers organisations that pay rates to their local government – “any organisation that pays rates on a property it owns is entitled to nominate a person to cast a vote in council elections, on its behalf.” That includes businesses!
Kirikiriroa-Hamilton Voting
“[W]e do actually deserve nice things. And sometimes those nice things are not even that nice. They're like a bare minimum of like a street with clean pavers or like not having overflowing rubbish um or having, you know, tidy streetscapes,” Louise Hutt.
Below are my local government election rankings (opinions my own, etc, etc) based on climate resilience, multi-modal transport, Te Tiriti positivity, and progressive voting records or progressive vibes.
I also used my local community groups and organisations to suss out the other candidates. It was made a lot easier by resources from local legends like Paul… The Other One and Dr Bex.
How I voted - via ranked choice
Hamilton City Council Mayor (1 seat)
Maria Huata
Sarah Thomson
Dave Taylor
The only other candidates who aren't fringe or conspiracy theorists are Tim Macindoe and Rachel Karalus - they're both right-wing, Tim does not support Maaori wards, and both believe rates should be cut (with funding cuts to council activities & services to afford it).
Hamilton West Ward (6 Seats)
Louise Hutt
Matthew Beveridge
Sarah Thomson
Angela O’leary
Dave Taylor
The only other candidate who isn't an ACT party supporter or a conspiracy theorist is Emma Pike (right-wing).
Hamilton East Ward (6 Seats)
Danielle Marks
Maxine van Oosten
Anna Casey-Cox
Peter Humphreys
Sue Moroney
The only other candidates who aren't ACT party supporters or conspiracy theorists are Peter Hunt and Jenny Nand.
On the right are Jamie Strange (past Labour MP with a very similar voting record to Tim Mac), Tim Macindoe (past Nats MP), Marie Hamilton (wife of the current Nats MP Ryan Hamilton), Jackie Talbot, Rachel Karalus, and Rachel Afeaki (shortlisted for 2022 Hamilton West by-election candidate for the Nats).
How I voted - via ticks
✔️ “I vote to KEEP Maaori wards”
✔️ Waikato Regional Council’s Hamilton Constituency (4 Seats)
Bruce Clarkson
Angela Strange
Jennifer Nickel
Bala Tikkisetty
Please do not give a vote to Chris Hughes because he thinks we shouldn't have buses!
The quickest way to vote is to drop your filled-out voting paper into an orange vote box. You can do this right up until midday on Saturday, the 11th of October.
In our city, you can find the most convenient place for you via this map [tinyurl.com/wheretovoteKH]
Further reading
2024: the year in review – by Louise Hutt, Hamilton City Councillor
Local Government Elections – by Dr Bex on Social Issues in Aotearoa New Zealand
Local Government Elections: Hamilton Edition – by Dr Bex on Social Issues in Aotearoa New Zealand
Kirikiriroa Metro – a collaborative newsletter with great council-related pieces.