Nelson Tasman Election: Everything You Need To Know

Tuesday, 7 October 2025, 5:29 pm
Article: Max Frethey - Local Democracy Reporter

Voting for the local election closes at midday this Saturday, 11 October. 

What do Nelson Tasman residents need to know if they haven’t voted yet? 

The election will decide who will sit on your council for the next three years. 

The mayor will lead the council and will, jointly with the rest of the councillors, guide the future of your area. 

Collectively, the council spends money collected from rates and other means on a wide range of activities from roads and water pipes to parks and libraries. 

As of Monday, 26.7% of Nelson voters and 27.3% of Tasman voters have cast their vote, both up on this time last election – Nelson by more than 4% and Tasman by almost 2%. 

Tuesday 7 October is the last day for postal voting. 

Because your vote needs to be received by midday Saturday by the electoral officer, posting your vote now risks it not arriving in time for it to be counted. 

If you plan on voting from Wednesday, you shouldn’t post your ballot, but that doesn’t mean you can’t vote at all. 

Instead, orange bins have been set up across the region to collect your voting papers. 

Nelson has bins set up at council facilities, like Civic House, public libraries, the Pūtangitangi Greenmeadows Centre, and Founders Heritage Park, as well as several supermarkets and other key locations, like the Victory Community Centre and Tāhunanui Community Hub, across the city. 

Tasman’s bins were located at the council’s service centres and public libraries across the district, and also at the Māpua Four Square. 

There were commonalities between the two districts when it came time to actually voting, but they also had some key differences. 

Both districts use ward systems, meaning that residents can vote for the mayor and for councillors who represent the ward that you live in. 

Nelson also has candidates who are running at large and can be voted for by everyone, regardless of where you live in the city. 

Residents living in Tasman’s Motueka and Golden Bay wards also have the opportunity to elect people to their community boards, which are advisory bodies for their local areas to the Tasman District Council. 

The two districts use different voting systems, with Tasman using the traditional first-past-the-post system while Nelson has adopted the single transferable vote. 

For Tasman, this means that voters get a tick for each position they can vote for – for example, someone on the general electoral roll living in Māpua gets four votes, one vote for mayor and three votes for their Moutere-Waimea Ward councillors. 

A ward’s number of councillors is determined by its population. 

The most populous general ward, Richmond, gets four, while the least populous, Lakes-Murchison, gets one. 

The candidates who receive the most votes will be elected. But in Nelson, voters don't use ticks and instead rank their candidates by preference, starting with 1 for their most-preferred candidate, then 2 for their second, and so on. 

To be elected, candidates must receive a certain number of votes, called the quota. 

The votes are then distributed across several iterations of vote-counting that consider voters’ order of preferred candidates. 

That means that the lowest-polling candidate is eliminated, and all their votes then go to their voters’ second preference, and so on, until the number of candidates who reach the quota is equal to the number of positions being filled. 

The single transferable vote is intended to give voters a greater chance at being represented by someone they support. 

Tasman voters don’t need to use all their votes, and Nelson voters don’t need to rank all candidates.

Even though both Nelson and Tasman have a Māori ward that will be filled next council term, voters on their Māori electoral rolls will not get to vote for a councillor candidate. 

This is because both wards only have a single candidate running for election, which means they’re automatically elected unopposed. 

All voters in both districts will also be able to cast a vote in their respective Māori Ward referendums, which are being held after the Government changed the rules for establishing the wards. 

The referendums are binding but will only come into effect for the council terms starting in 2028, meaning that even if voters reject the ward, it will be kept for the next three years.

If you have enrolled to vote after 1 August, are on the unpublished roll, didn’t receive your voting papers, or have soiled them, you can still cast a special vote. 

Special votes can be conducted from Civic House for Nelson or from Tasman’s service centres. 

Votes will start being counted after midday on Saturday, and preliminary results for each district are expected later that same afternoon. 

-Local Democracy Reporting is local body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air

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