Carterton District Council will vote for a new deputy mayor at its inaugural meeting this week.
Carterton differs from Masterton and South Wairarapa councils in that the deputy mayor is whoever receives the most votes from fellow elected members.
In Masterton and South Wairarapa, however, the mayors appoint their deputies.
Masterton Mayor-elect Gary Caffell has appointed Bex Johnson deputy, and South Wairarapa Mayor-elect Martin Connelly has appointed Melissa Sadler-Futter.
At Carterton’s meeting on Wednesday, councillors will choose from two voting systems to elect the new deputy mayor.
System A requires the successful candidate to receive the votes of the majority of the members present and voting.
There is a first round of voting.
If no candidate is successful, there is a second round of voting from which the candidate with the fewest votes in the first round is excluded, and so on.
System B requires the successful candidate to receive more votes than any other candidate.
There is only one round of voting under this system.
Both voting systems require a resolution by ‘lot’ if two candidates receive an equal number of votes and no one else is elected.
The most common procedure is for the names of the candidates with the same number of votes to be placed in a container, and the name of the person drawn out by an independent person. The person drawn out is deemed the winner i.e. elected or not excluded from the next round.
– NZLDR
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