local government election hub 2025
Results are Ongoing - check your local Council Website for details
Overview
Welcome to the Paul... The Other One Local Government Election Hub - a one stop resource for voters wanting to learn more about this year's Local Body Elections.
With a team of researchers, we've put together some handy guide videos on local government, some basic info to understand the different systems in place, fact checked some of the flood of disinformation coming from the hard right and conspiracy pushing groups around the country wanting to manipulate how you vote and some tools to help other voters keep informed.
key dates
- July 4 - Nominations Open
- August 1 - Nominations Close
- August 8 - Nominations Finalised
- September - Voting Forms Arrive
- October 11 - Election Day
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What Happens when disinformation groups get involved in local politics?
This massive research documentary explores the range of local astroturf groups set up to drive voters towards far right voting patterns this local body election. From Pseudo Law groups to disinformation experts, they all want you to make your home a shittier place.
Explainer Videos
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A User Guide to LG
What to expect as we go into the 2025 Local Body Elections.
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Spotters Guide
Looking for tips to spot red flags? Here's some tools to help you with that.
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Need vs Nice
It's a buzzword salad from the PM but does he know what it really means in local government?
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Council Roles Explained
Is there a difference between a Regional Councillor and a City Councillor? Or a Local Board and a Community Board?
More Videos
Check out all the Election Videos - with handy explainers, candidate content, research resources and breakdowns of tools and reactions.
get the facts on online sources
Everyone who chooses to vote is entitled to vote for whomever they want to, but voters also have a right to make informed decisions - and some candidates and their supporters will actively mislead, deny and downplay connections and ideologies that could impact how voters choose to vote. Here you'll find some easily verifiable data sets to help, which we'll add to as they crop up during the election campaign, put together by a dedicated team of fact checkers from all over Aotearoa.
Fact Check Call Outs
Feel free to download these and use them to help voters make more informed decisions this election
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On June 26, 2025, Voices for Freedom founder Alia Bland hosted a Zoom stream where they admitted Council Watch was a resource they had created for VFF affiliated candidates.
.png "Challenging Councils is a pseudo law group")
Challenging Councils was founded by Mark Quinn on 4 March, 2024, he has used the platform to spread ineffective pseudo law theories.
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It's possible for any candidate to share inaccurate or deliberately misleading resources - and may be doing so unwittingly.
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A number of candidates exist within various communities known to spread disinformation.
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All media has a bias, and media in elections is often cherry picked to present bias as neutral.
A large percentage of local Resident and Ratepayer Groups have been created by groups linked to disinformation groups
HELP OTHERS MAKE INFORMED VOTING DECISIONS THIS YEAR
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SUBSTACK RESOURCES
*Some Substack articles may require a paid subscription to access.
Council information
Regional Councils
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