2019 Auckland mayoral election
The 2019 Auckland mayoral election was held on 12 October 2019 to determine who would serve as Mayor of Auckland for the next three years. Nominations opened on 19 July 2019 and closed on 16 August 2019. Incumbent Mayor Phil Goff won the election with 48% of the vote to secure a second term. Background. Phil Goff was the incumbent mayor of Auckland. Goff became mayor at the 2016 election in which the previous mayor, Len Brown, did not stand. Goff announced in March 2019 that he would stand again. The election was conducted by postal  vote, and used the first past the post vote system. Key dates. Key dates for the election were: Candidates. The 21 candidates for the mayoralty were: Prospective candidates who did not stand. The following people indicated they might, or would, run for mayor in this election, but ultimately did not. Policies and campaigning. The campaign included a number of debates. One debate between Goff, Tamihere, Lord, and Henry discussed issues such as infrastructure, public transport, climate change, parking, and inequality, among other topics. The last debate was on 1 October. Candidate Phil Goff compared the campaign to the previous one  saying: "It's a lot different from last time, we had a lot of meetings last time, it's been a more aggressive campaign from his [John Tamihere's] side." Candidate John Tamihere faced controversy for using the term "Sieg Heil" during a debate. After Goff stated "We won't put up with the sort of nonsense that we get from racists coming into this country to tell us that multiculturalism doesn't work," Tamihere responded, "I say sieg heil to that." After the debate, Tamihere initially denied using the term, then stated his comments were a criticism of Goff 's actions around a decision to bar controversial Canadian speakers Stefan Molyneux and Lauren Southern from using an Auckland Council venue in 2018, calling Goff "a dictator". Tamihere made a complaint over three social media posts posted by Phil Goff, but the complaints were rejected by the Advertising Standards Authority. Some voting booklets contained two incorrect photographs, including showing mayoral candidate Tricia Cheel as a man. Results. By local board. Source: Turnout. Turnout was expected to be lower than in previous elections. Initial counts, while voting was still open, showed turnout to be lower compared with the same time in  the 2016 election. The final turnout for Auckland was predicted to be around 35%.