KEY POINTS:
Numerous theories abound to explain the low voter turnout in local elections, but one electoral officer believes differences in the order of candidates' names on voting papers is not helping.
Under the Local Electoral Act, councils and district health boards can choose whether to list candidates in alphabetical, random, or pseudo-random order.
Random order is purely random and means every voting paper is different, while pseudo-random means candidates' names are drawn at random and then put in that one order on all voting papers.
To further complicate matters, local elections also use two voting systems - first past the post and single transferable voting.
Dale Ofsoske, electoral officer for nine districts including Auckland City, said: "For the elector out there, they've got to navigate through all this before they can actually vote."
He cited the example of Western Bay of Plenty. The district council's voting papers listed candidates in pseudo-random order, the regional council had chosen alphabetical order, and the DHB random order. It was also the only district with Maori and general seats.
"[Voters] have got to work through the two electoral systems, they've got to work through the order of candidate names, and they've also got the Maori and general seats for the regional council, so they've actually got three issues there."
As with most other areas in the country, Western Bay's voter turnout is down, sitting at 26.6 per cent yesterday, compared with 31.1 per cent at the same time three years ago.
Mr Ofsoske said part of the reason for the slump was that the mayoral seat was not contested this year, but he believed the complexity of voting documents did not help.
As an electoral officer, he would not comment on whether the system of ordering should be made uniform, but said that as a voter he would like to see consistency.
The only consolation for voters was that candidate information booklets were in alphabetical order, making them easy to navigate.
Voting closes at midday on Saturday. Papers can be hand-delivered if voters run out of time to post them. Councils can advise of drop-off points.
