Council is going the extra mile to make sure voters in the Ashburton District know about the people standing for Council roles in the coming Local Elections.

Council is hosting two meet-the-candidate evenings and also inviting candidates to make short videos that will sit alongside their personal information on Council’s website voteashburton.nz.

Chief Executive Hamish Riach said part of his role in the lead-up to the elections was to encourage voters to enrol and then vote.

“One of the reasons people often give for not voting is that they don’t know enough about the candidates or their policies.

Nationally we’ve seen voter turnout decrease over the past decade or so and we want to turn that around.

“In the Ashburton District, voter turnout in 2010 was almost 60 per cent, but that had dropped to 50 per cent for the local elections in 2022.”

The meet-the-candidate events will be held in Methven on Wednesday 20 August and in Ashburton on Wednesday 27 August.

The audience will be able to see candidates on stage and hear them answer questions.

After the nomination period closes at noon on 1 August, candidates will be invited by Council to record a 90-second video. Recording conditions will be the same for each candidate and they will be asked the same three questions.

Mr Riach said candidate videos were being employed by several other councils ahead of the local elections, to help voters learn more about who is standing.

“We want people to see or hear candidates that resonate with them, and we think this will encourage more to vote.”

In the Ashburton District, voters will elect a mayor, nine councillors and five Methven Community Board members.

Voting papers will start arriving in letterboxes from 9 September and the cut-off for voting is at noon on 11 October.