Voting turnout down

By GREGG WYCHERLEY

The election counting process was smoother and faster than in 1999, but voter turnout was down this year, with a large number of Aucklanders especially voting to stay at home.

A few more than two million people voted in the 1999 election, but on Saturday only 75.4 per cent of voters nationally - 1,832,834 people - made it to a booth.

Auckland's turnout was a particularly low 68.7 per cent compared to Wellington's 77.8 per cent and 82.6 per cent in the provincial North Island.

Mainlanders did better: 77.4 per cent of voters turned out in Christchurch, 80.7 per cent in Dunedin and 80.6 per cent in the provinces.

In the Maori seats the voter turnout was 54.4 per cent.

Chief electoral officer David Henry said voting started slowly and the trend continued all day.

"Whether it was weather or what I don't know ... My job is simply to reduce the barriers to voting. People make up their own minds."

There were still 161, 978 special votes to be tallied, and about 17,000 extra overseas votes.

Political scientist Professor Barry Gustafson said there were probably two distinct groups who did not feel compelled to vote: "People who thought a Labour victory was certain and they did not need to rush to the polls, and some National people who also thought a Labour victory was certain and didn't really feel particularly impressed with their own party so didn't bother."

Labour Party president Mike Williams said statistics might be misleading.

People had been purged from electoral rolls only if voter packs were returned unopened, so the total roll might be larger than usual.

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