Local elections voter turnout is notoriously low – will 2025 buck the trend? With a week to go, this is the state of affairs in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

As the completed ballots trickle in by post before voting closes at midday next Saturday, October 11, daily updates are being released for each council. So how are things tracking in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch?

It’s important to note that the voting period has increased this year from 22 days to 32 days, so there is added complexity in comparing turnout with previous elections: people have had 10 more days to get their votes in than in the past. Those forms have been sitting there taking up valuable kitchen bench space for ages, so many of us might have wanted to get the damn things out of the way, meaning the turnout peak might be reached more quickly than in previous years.

Having said that, and keeping in mind that turnout was pretty dismal in 2022, this year it’s looking… at least not any worse, and quite possibly better.

In Auckland, as of the afternoon of Friday, October 3, 15.9% of ballots had been returned, compared to 14.6% at the same point in 2022, 15.2% in 2019 and 18.3% in 2016.

Wellington is going great guns: as of Friday, 20.8% of ballots had been received, compared to just 9.9% at the same point in 2022, 10% in 2019 and 15.7% in 2016. Things are looking good in the Wellington region’s other council areas too: Hutt City is at 18.5% compared to 12.2% in 2022, Upper Hutt 24.1% (it was just 9.2% in 2022), and Porirua 19.2% compared to 11.1% at the same point in 2022.

In Christchurch, turnout was at 22.8% as of Friday, very close to the 22.6% recorded at the same point in 2022 (it was 17.6%“ in 2019 and 21.2% in 2016).

We don’t have graphs for these ones (sorry), but turnout’s looking good in Hamilton, which is getting a new mayor one way or another: as of Friday, turnout was at 16.2%, compared to 11% at the same point in 2022.

Perplexingly, given its stacked mayoral race (complete with vampire) and unparalleled commitment to hoardings, Dunedin’s turnout is tracking slightly lower than in previous years: 15.2% as of Friday, compared to 16.8% in 2022.