7 Oct 2016

South Auckland voting box aims to capture late rush

8:52 am on 7 October 2016

In a last effort to get more Aucklanders to vote in the local-body elections, a temporary voting box was set up yesterday afternoon in South Auckland's Manukau shopping centre.

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Photo: RNZ

With the ballot closing at midday tomorrow, so far just one-third of all possible votes have been received - well below the 40 percent target.

South Auckland has returned the fewest votes with only one quarter of eligible voters having done so in Manurewa, and fewer than that in Ōtara.

Auckland Council election planning manager Glyn Walters said votes could still be cast at ballot boxes in public libraries and council services centres.

"It is crunch point. We always get a late rush, if you look at the numbers there is always a bit of a rush at the end.

"So it's important that we have the capacity to absorb that rush around the region and make it easy for people to vote."

Mr Walters said the overall turnout was tracking towards 38-percent.

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