Auckland mayoral race heats up, new poll says

Oakland, California (cron) — Auckland City Council members Lauren Taylor and Shen Tao are in a very hot race for mayor, according to a new poll.

Auckland Chamber of Commerce poll shows Taylor and Thao both hold around 34% of the 604 residents surveyed as first, second and third choice .

“I think it will be between now and the next 20 days. I don’t think any of them have high expectations, says KRON4 political analyst Michael Yaki.

Former city councilor Ignacio de la Fuente came third in the mayoral polls, and experts say he can’t be ruled out because Oakland uses rank-selection voting.

“In the Ranked Choices poll, the literal history of the Bay Area is littered with people who finished first in the first round, but who finished second was higher for all who dropped out.” We lost after that because it was a rank option.It’s early, so it’s too early to say who will win,” Yaki said.

Ranked voting played a decisive role in the 2010 Auckland mayoral election. In the first tally, former state senator Don Perata got his first-place vote, 11,000 more than Alderman Jean Quan.

He didn’t have more than half of the votes needed to win. When the votes for the second and his third choice were tallied, Quan emerged victorious with more than half the votes to his 2,000 vote lead.

As such, political analysts say the next three weeks will be not only a campaign to get the public to vote, but also to see who other candidates endorse as the second choice.

“I think there will be a lot of trading between now and the next three weeks to get people to decide who is the second of the three frontrunners,” said Yaki. .