Candidate names will appear in random order for the 2025 triennial election, Waikato regional councillors have decided.

At the 30 April meeting, councillors were asked to consider three options for regional council candidates, all of which cost the same:

• Alphabetical order: the candidate names are arranged in alphabetical order of surname.
• Pseudo-random order: the order of candidate names is determined randomly, and all voting documents use that order.
• Fully random order: the order of candidate names is arranged randomly for each voting document.

A council report said that in the 2022 local government election, 73 per cent of councils used fully random order, 25 per cent alphabetical and 2 per cent pseudo-random.

At the time of writing the report, no local councils in the Waikato region had determined their ordering preference for this year’s election.

The Local Government Commission considered the impact of candidate name order on election outcomes as part of its Review of the Local Government Act 2002 and the Local Electoral Act 2001. This included a limited analysis of data from the 2007 local elections and a review of relevant international research. The commission concluded that the issue is complex, and there is currently no definitive evidence that can be directly applied to local elections in New Zealand.

However, a selection of key research papers compiled by Taituarā consistently found that candidates listed first on the ballot generally receive a higher share of votes. This effect is especially pronounced in elections where voters have limited knowledge of the candidates.

The studies found the magnitude of the effect varies, with some studies reporting an increase of around 1 percentage point, and others noting gains of up to 3 percentage points for first-listed candidates.

With respect to the candidate profile book which accompanies voting papers mailed to voters in September, the candidate statements will appear in alphabetical order, no matter what order candidates are listed on the voting documents.

Candidate nominations open on 4 July and close at 12pm on 1 August. More information about the 2025 elections, including the job of councillor, can be found at waikatoregion.govt.nz/elections.

Election Day is Saturday, 11 October. In a decision made in September 2023, councillors agreed to stick with the first past the post voting system.

This meeting was livestreamed. You can watch the recording here: https://www.youtube.com/live/QQEShbPOFKs

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