And the race is on…

Nominations for candidates in the local elections closed yesterday, so today I downloaded all the official lists of candidates from the new Auckland Council site. This year, of course, the citizens and ratepayers for eight separate councils will be choosing one new Auckland Council, 32 Local Boards and one Mayor for us all.

In my case, my choices are:

• Mayor: 23 candidates for 1 position.
• Auckland Council: 12 candidates for 2 positions in our Ward
• Local Board: 23 candidates for 8 positions

So, I'll vote for 11 people out of a grand total of 58 contenders. Some of them can be ruled out instantly because they’re nutters, extremists and/or vanity candidates, but there are some serious choices no matter where one is on the political spectrum. That, at least, is a good thing.

Another good thing is that I have quite awhile to make my mind up—looks like I may need it!

Addendum: There are two other ordinary elections this year, ones that have nothing to do with the new Auckland Council. First, our local licensing trust has 11 candidates vying for six vacancies and our district health board has a whopping 33 candidates chasing seven vacancies.

So, the grand total is: I have 102 people to choose among for 24 positions. I should note that many of the same people are running for several positions at once, so there’s overlap. But, still—it’s a helluva lot of choices to make!

And that’s precisely why I love democracy so much.