Plenty of options for dropping off completed voting forms

DUNEDIN voters have plenty of places to drop off their completed forms now that voting has opened in local body elections.

Orange voting bins have been placed in parts of the city.

The elections are run through postal voting and the forms have to be in the hands of the returning officer before noon on October 8.

Voting papers were mailed out from last Friday and can be sent in, or dropped off, straight away.

Dunedin deputy electoral officer Clare Sullivan said the voting bins could be found at any branch of Dunedin’s public libraries, as well as the council’s service centres and Toitu Otago Settlers Museum.

They would also be at the Pak'nSave Dunedin supermarket and central Dunedin, Gardens and Mosgiel New World supermarkets, as well as at the University of Otago, Otago Polytechnic and Otago Museum.

People who need to cast a special vote can do so at the civic centre’s Plaza meeting room.

A mobile specialvoting booth will be travelling around the city during the voting period from next Tuesday.

A University of Otago spokes

woman said many students in residential colleges were notified by text messages when mail arrived for them.

Several colleges would hold voting papers at reception for students to pick up, she said.

Voters in Dunedin have two

different voting grapple with.

The Dunedin City Council uses the singletransferable vote

systems

to

system, which means voters rank candidates in the order they prefer them.

Other councils in the South,

including the Otago Regional Council, operate under the firstpastthepost system.

That means voters put a tick

next to the candidates they support for the regional council, rather than a number.