Political pundits say there's more electorate seats up for grabs than usual and many races will go down to the wire in this year's election.
Last election Labour won big with the party vote and local seats, taking 15 electorates away from National.
Political commentator Ben Thomas said that will make for an interesting election night. "I think there are more seats in play than an ordinary election. Now part of that is that Labour won seats it probably never expected to in 2020".
There are 72 electorate seats and last election Labour won 46, while National won 23. Many National strongholds like Ilam and Rangitata falling to Labour.
Thomas said the overall swing, or party popularity, will have a big impact on electorate races. Currently National is polling well ahead of Labour.
"You know it's a bit of a double bind for Labour," Thomas said.
"It would want to keep electorate seats, but then if they keep electorate seats that means fewer list MPs and you know more than half of their current cabinet are relying on the list to get back in. So that's a lot of the leadership and the strength of the party".
Former MP Peter Dunne agrees: "The wave goes in and the wave goes out, so a lot of those MPs who came in on that wave are going to go".
Dunne represented Ohariu for 33 years and said electorate MPs are very important.
"They are very much the go to person, they're the person that can advocate as I say for constituents on personal cases. On local issues they can take a lead in promoting what the local community wants".
One of the seats won in what was dubbed Labour's red wave was Nelson. After 30 years as the local MP National's Nick Smith was beaten by Labour's Rachel Boyack.
Boyack said she deserves to keep the seat. "I think it's really easy for people to promise things, but what I'm really proud of is the things I've promised, things like better public transport, I've delivered on".
She's up against National's Blair Cameron and it's likely to be close. "I'm feeling really good," he said. "I had one 89-year-old lady who came to me and said I've voted for Labour every election for all my life but I'll be voting for you this year".
The minor parties are also trying to make inroads in some seats and even if they don't win they could split the vote. The Greens are backing Tamatha Paul in Wellington Central, ACT's deputy leader Brooke van Velden is a contender in Tamaki and Te Pāti Māori are going after a number of Māori seats.
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