Early voters quick with their tick
Green and red clad voters yesterday raced to the ballot box to make their vote count in this year’s election campaign.
About 30 voters met local MPs and candidates on the first day of advanced voting at Ward St in Hamilton’s CBD.
Hamilton West voter Sally Wilson, who was the first to cast her vote, said she wanted to send a message to the Government. ‘‘We are going to turn out in huge numbers and vote this time and the people who didn’t vote last time, we are going to mobilise them.’’
Clare Cramond, from Hamilton East, was due to fly out of the country last night on holiday and got her vote in early. ‘‘When I heard I could come down and vote today I said, yes, this is it. I can vote in Hamilton.’’
Her great-grandmother Annie Hall signed the 1893 Women’s Suffrage petition which called on the government to grant women the vote.
‘‘She signed the women’s suffrage petition and all we have to do is get down and vote and I think a lot of young people don’t seem to realise the significance of it.’’
Iriaka Rauhihi was the first in line to cast a vote in the Hauraki Waikato electorate and said a number of Maori didn’t believe their vote would make a differ- ence. ‘‘ What they don’t understand is that there is a way for them to be able to do that and a lot of them aren’t educated around that.’’
Labour MP in Hamilton West, Sue Moroney, said it was an important part of democracy and people needed to make the contribution. Green Party MP Kevin Hague was there for support and emphasised candidates were not influencing voters.
‘‘It is really important that people are not intimidated while they go into the polling booth and that is not what we are setting out to do.’’