New Zealand's final voter turnout for the 2025 local elections has been confirmed at 39.42%, prompting renewed calls for urgent reform from Local Government New Zealand (LGNZ).
The figure, which included 34,793 special votes, was boosted by a surge in election day voting with 185,078 ballots cast — accounting for 14.1% of all votes.
LGNZ interim chief executive Scott Necklen said voting habits were shifting and the system needed to change to accommodate them.
"We saw more people cast their ballots 10 days prior to election day, followed by a voting lull until election day itself — when almost 15% of all ballots were cast into the orange bins," he said.
"That's a significant volume for election day, and further evidence that providing convenient drop-off points makes it easier for people to vote. It also helped that councils had more orange bins out in the community than ever before."
More than 1500 orange bins were deployed this year, and LGNZ said the success of the drop-off model supported a key recommendation from the Electoral Reform Working Group to move away from postal voting and toward a two-week, in person voting system.
Necklen said LGNZ had recently met with the Government to discuss implementing the changes by 2028, including a proposal for the Electoral Commission to take over running local elections.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon indicated he was open to the idea, Necklen said.
"It's vital we do whatever it takes to lift voter turnout and restore confidence in local democracy, as council decisions impact all parts of our lives; from roads and rubbish and footpaths to water quality, flood resilience, community facilities and events."
Chatham Islands (68.34%), Kaikoura (60.85%) and the Mackenzie District (60.43%) recorded the highest voter turnouts, while Auckland City (29.33%), Hamilton City (32.97%) and Waikato District (35.03%) recorded the lowest voter turnouts.
Yesterday, Auckland Council said more than 10,000 special votes were received, but that 4162 special votes in Auckland were deemed invalid, due to incorrect or missing declaration details, or outdated enrolment details.
Council governance and engagement general manager Lou-Ann Ballantyne said the number of special votes was record-breaking, despite almost half of them being thrown out.
"This unprecedented number of special votes shows people were motivated to participate and then able to easily access voting papers to participate," she said.
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