Super City elections 2013: Auckland voters taking their time to decide who will run their city

Auckland Super City election voting papers. Photo / Sarah Ivey

Aucklanders have been slow to vote in the local body elections - votes have been received from only 12.59 per cent of people eligible to vote.

Ballot paper deliveries to homes began on September 20 and by yesterday 125,294 votes from around the city had been received, Auckland Council figures showed.

In the 2010 elections, 20.4 per cent of votes had been received at the same time.

Auckland Mayor Len Brown and mayoral candidates John Palino and the Rev Uesifili Unasa have called on people to get their votes in.

The lowest percentage of votes posted - 9.3 per cent - is in Kaipatiki, on the North Shore.

Kaipatiki Local Board candidate Lindsay Waugh said she she did not get her papers until last Friday.

She was concerned other voters may have been similarly affected, and not had time to make their selections yet.

The East Coast Bays division of the Hibiscus and Bays Local Board had 9.4 per cent of eligible votes and board chairwoman Julia Parfitt said it could be a case of bad timing for the voting period.

"Two of the three weeks' voting fall in the school holidays when a lot of the Bays residents are away with children and grand children."

Upper Harbour Board chairwoman Margaret Miles said the 9.4 per cent voting in the board's area reflected a feeling she had picked up on the campaign trail.

"On this side of the bridge, they are disillusioned with the Super City and don't feel they are getting value for their rates money."

Keenest Super City voters are Great Barrier Island (26.4 per cent) and Waiheke Island (23.3 per cent).