Votes roll in for local council poll

WHO'S VOTING? You have until October 12 to get your local authority vote in by post.PHOTO/FILE

Votes are trickling in for the local government elections.

The papers have been sent, the campaigning is under way and voters have till October 12 to make their choices by post.

So far, 14 per cent of Wairarapa people who are eligible to vote - or 4422 - have had their say.

Out of the three Wairarapa district councils, South Wairarapa has the highest rate of voting papers returned - 15.9 per cent.

Carterton voters are at 14.1 per cent, with Masterton following closely behind on 13.6 per cent.

The return rate was as expected, said chief electoral officer Warwick Lampp.

"We are on track compared to last time, maybe slightly ahead," he said.

Mr Lampp anticipated just over half of all eligible Wairarapa people, around 55 per cent, would cast their vote before the closing date. "We could have a rush at the end."

Wairarapa is beating the rest of the Wellington region, with the highest return rate so far.

In Porirua, which has a similar sized voting population to Wairarapa, 9 per cent of 36,077 voters have returned their papers.

Historically, Wairarapa voters are normally keen to cast their votes, overtaking the national average return of 49 per cent.

In the last election in 2010, voter turnout for South Wairarapa was 50.7 per cent, Masterton 54.4 per cent, and Carterton 56.7 per cent.

Voter turnout in local body elections is notoriously lower than the general election and about half of all eligible voters nationwide actually take part in the local elections.

Mr Lampp said that might be because of the way local and general election voting was done.

"Polling and voting in one day means there's much more noise to get people out to vote."

As well as the usual flyer drop and billboards, several Wairarapa candidates have online profiles, including Masterton mayoral candidates Lyn Patterson and Gary Caffell.

Mrs Patterson has a Facebook page for her campaign and Mr Caffell has his own website, called Masterton Matters.

Incumbent mayor Garry Daniell, however, has no social media presence.

Mr Lampp said people could still vote if they had not received voting papers or were not enrolled, by casting a special vote.

At the last election there had been 300 special votes cast across Wairarapa, he said.

A survey done by Local Government New Zealand into why people voted or not found the main reasons for not voting were: voters didn't know enough about the candidates (31 per cent); forgot or left it too late (24 per cent); not interested (14 per cent); or too busy (14 per cent).

By contrast, the main reasons respondents gave for voting emphasised democratic duty and belief in democracy (26 per cent); to have my say (17 per cent); and you cannot complain if you haven't voted (7 per cent).