Election Complaints
Response
Sent: Thursday, 23 October 2025 11:59 am
Subject: LGOIMA request - REQ25-3064424 - Election complaints
Kia ora
I refer to your LGOIMA request of 17 October 2025 regarding the ten complaints received during the recent local government elections and seeking a description of the complaints received, an evaluation of each complaint and the action taken with regard to each complaint.
The below table contains this information:
Complaint against | Description of complaint | Evaluation | Action taken | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Conan O’Brien | Back of the bus advertising. | The sign exceeded the 3m² maximum size allowed as stated in the Rotorua Lakes Council Election Signs Guidelines. | The candidate was contacted and asked to either make the sign compliant or remove the sign. |
2 | Tania Tapsell | Back of the bus advertising. | The sign exceeded the 3m² maximum size allowed as stated in the Rotorua Lakes Council Election Signs Guidelines. | The candidate was contacted and asked to either make the sign compliant or remove the sign. |
3 | Frank Grapl | Election signage (various locations). | The candidate used a Rotorua Lakes Council owned font/ branding on his election signs. | The candidate was contacted and agreed to replace the word with a compliant font. |
4 | Brendon Davis | Election signage (cnr Old Taupo Road & Moncur Drive) | The candidate displayed an election sign on a road reserve which is not permitted as stated in the Rotorua Lakes Council Election Signs Guidelines. | The candidate was contacted and asked to remove the sign. |
5 | Reynold Macpherson | Election signage (Hamurana Reserve) | The candidate displayed an election sign attached to a tree in the Hamurana Reserve which is not permitted as stated in the Rotorua Lakes Council Election Signs Guidelines. | The candidate was contacted and asked to remove the sign. |
6 | Ben Sanford | Election signage (1 Springfield Road) | The candidate displayed an election sign on a road reserve which is not permitted as stated in the Rotorua Lakes Council Election Signs Guidelines. | The candidate was contacted and asked to remove the sign. |
7 | Frank Grapl | Election signage (136 Fairy Springs Road) | The candidate attached an election sign on a fence without the owner’s permission as stated in the Rotorua Lakes Council Election Signs Guidelines. | The candidate was contacted and asked to remove the sign. |
8 | Robert Lee | YouTube. Uploading a campaign video to YouTube. | Uploaded material originally published by RLC on its official YouTube channel (being excerpts of Council meeting recordings and an animation created for and published by RLC) which created a copyright infringement. | The candidate was contacted and explained the video was removed by YouTube at RLC’s request. |
9 | Robert Lee | Rumble. Uploaded a campaign video to Rumble. | Uploaded a RLC video to the sharing platform Rumble which resulted in a breach of RLC election protocols and a copyright infringement. | The candidate was contacted and asked to remove any Council content from the Rumble sharing platform. |
10 | Te Tatau o Te Arawa | Facebook. Voucher offered to encourage voting. | A post to Facebook asked for volunteers to collect voting forms from whānau, friends and work collegues and put them in a voting bin. Collecting voting forms should be discouraged. Offering vouchers to collect votes should be discouraged. | Te Tatau o Te Arawa were contacted and asked to remove post. |
