At Alpha we think that democracy starts at the community level and needs to be strong there so that we feel we have a say in what happens immediately around us.

In one of the lowest turnouts in recent times New Zealand Cities, Towns and Public Sector organisations have their new Mayor's, Councillors and Boards. The lists of successful candidates are up in most Council and DHB websites.

We work with a lot of these organisations, in fact two are amongst our largest clients, but we don't often get the opportunity to meet the people who put their hand up to serve on these public bodies. Suffice to say it's something few people actually do, and in most cases they are there because they have ideas and views on how our communities should be developed.  Worth a bit of our time and respect we think, whatever the nature of their platforms.

There has been a lot of comment since about ways to get more people voting, and this includes discussion around electronic forms of voting.  No issue with that, anything that is safe (ie not prone to being hacked), and immediate is great.  But it's really not so hard to put a few lines through a piece of paper, put it in the pre-supplied envelope, and drop it into the mail. Of if, you're like some of us at Alpha, make a last minute dash to the local library.

Congratulations to all those elected. 

If you didn't vote we would be interested to hear why that happened and what you think would make the process for engaging for you next time round, it's only three years away and will be here before we know it.