School Councils or Boards are important
Managing elections can be a distraction from other things you need to get done, but we are here to help!
School board elections in Aotearoa can be confusing… But we are here to help!
There are some key advantages to having Election Pilot run your election for you
We do all the hard work
There are some key advantages to having Election Pilot run your election for you.
When we are the Returning Officer for your election, we handle pretty much everything. Our system can integrate with most Student Management Systems (SMS) used in New Zealand and Australia to generate the electoral roll automatically. We provide a range of resources for your school, manage the call for nominations, approve candidates, handle candidate queries, issue voting papers, count votes, declare results, and complete post-election reporting as needed.
You can offer electronic voting and get a better turnout
We have been offering electronic voting since 2022, and it is showing improved voter engagement and turnout for school elections.
2025 saw the number of parent elections with enough candidates to trigger the election to progress to the voting stage increase from approx 50% of elections in previous years to 73.8% of all parent elections going to a vote. We also saw the voter return increase from 18-20% in previous elections to 28.9% in 2025. Voter turnout in staff elections increased to 69.6% and student elections to 39.5%, both improvements over previous elections. Our electronic voting system has been assessed by Safer Technology 4 Schools (ST4S) and has the ST4S Badge.
Your election will be truly independent
When you appoint Election Pilot to be your Returning Officer, your election is truly independent. This removes the possibility of people complaining that someone in the school influenced or interfered with your election.
It frees up your team to focus on the important things… the students
Elections take time to be done correctly, and for most people, this is not something they do all the time. It takes time to get up to speed with the rules and to manage the process properly. We do all that for you, so your team can focus on the important work that needs to happen in your school.
Your election mission can lift off without a hitch
Regardless of where you are based and what rules your constitution, legislation, or other requirements you have, we will work with your school to make sure that your election mission lifts off without a hitch.
Resources to support your election
We supply a large selection of resources that you can use to share important information about your election and to promote people getting involved. We have notices and articles that can be shared with your community through your school newsletters, school app, social media, and more. We also have templates for social media posts to keep your community up to date with what is going on at each stage.
Ready to move your election to the launch pad? Then talk to us now.
