Early voting opens across the electorate
All you need to know on casting a ballot before election day
Residents in the Whanganui electorate are now able to head to the polls after advance voting for the 2023 general election opened yesterday. A total of 12 voting places across the electorate, including Whanganui and South Taranaki, opened for people looking to cast their vote before the official election day, October 14.
An Electoral Commission statement said it was best for people to pick the location closest to their home to make voting quick and easy.
According to the commission, 67.7 per cent of voters nationally cast their votes before election day in the 2020 election, higher than the 60 per cent expected.
This continued a positive trend for advance voting in Aotearoa, with 1.2 million votes being cast in advance in 2017, 717,000 in 2014 and 330,000 in 2014.
The commission said it was unable to predict how many people would vote early this year.
In Whanganui, 88.17 per cent of eligible voters were enrolled to vote by September 10, slightly less than the national total of 90.5 per cent.
This figure is also slightly down from the number in the electorate enrolled to vote in the 2020 election, at 90.58 per cent.
By age, people aged 18-24 lag far behind the rest of the electorate with just 59.54 per cent of those eligible to vote enrolled.
Comparatively, enrolment figures for people aged 25-29 increase dramatically to 83.26 per cent and generally continue to increase as people age, with 99.35 per cent of people aged over 70 enrolled to vote.
However, people who did not enrol in the build-up to the election can enrol to vote at any voting site before 7pm on election day.
Advance voting places will be open from 10am to 5.30pm Monday to Saturday from October 2 to October 13.
On election day, all voting places will be open from 9am to 7pm.
The commission said voting would only take around five minutes.
Once at a voting place, people will be given a voting paper, where they’ll be asked to place two ticks: one for the political party they support (party vote), and another for the person they want to be their local Member of Parliament (MP) and represent the electorate they are enrolled in (electorate vote).
In Whanganui, voters on the general roll can vote for the Whanganui electorate candidate. Voters on the Ma¯ori roll can vote for a candidate in Te Tai Haua¯uru electorate.
Being on the general roll or Ma¯ori roll makes no difference to the party vote, as the same list of parties will be available to vote for on each.
Advance voting places open from October 2 in the Whanganui electorate Whanganui
Aramoho School Hall/Pasifika Innovation Hub, 2 Mitchell St
Baden Powell Scout Hall, 13 Swiss Ave Jubilee Stadium, 228 London St Whanganui Cook Island Community Hall, 71 Puriri St (corner Harper St) St Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, 42 Glasgow St
St Mary’s Church Hall, corner of Guyton St & Wicksteed St
Hakeke Street Community Centre, 65 Hakeke St
Eltham
All Saints Church Hall, 88 King Edward St
Ha¯ wera
Presbyterian Centre, 35 Argyle St
Pa¯ tea
Pa¯tea Old Folks Association Hall, 139 Egmont St
Stratford
Stratford War Memorial Hall, 55 Miranda St
O¯ punake
O¯ punake High School Hall at 149-15 Tasman St will be open for advance voting on October 7-8 from 9am to 5pm, as will O¯ punake Library Plus, 43 Tasman St, from October 9-12 from 9am to 4.30pm and October 13 from 9am to 2pm.
iA full list of all available voting locations for election day is available on the Electoral Commission’s website, vote.nz.