As it stood yesterday, election returns for Dunedin sat at 17.54%, or 16,614 voters who had cast their vote in this year’s local body election.
In the South, only Queenstown Lakes District Council (16.82%) trails Dunedin — the pair are behind most councils across New Zealand, whose voting returns sit around 25%-35%.
Sixteen people are standing for the Dunedin mayoralty, believed to be a record for the city, and 54 people are vying to be a Dunedin city councillor.
"While lots of people standing is good for democracy it seems like it’s meaning people are feeling a bit overwhelmed at the choices and research needed to make good decisions."
Dunedin was "a bit infamous" for rushing last minute to the polls — last election voting returns rose from 17% to 48% in the week up to the election — and she hoped that was the case this year, Cr Barker said.
"Local government has more impact on people’s lives than the national government, so arguably it’s more important to get that vote in."
Mayoral candidate Lee Vandervis said the low turnout likely reflected "wide disillusionment" with previous council decision making.
"A larger number of candidates has worsened the task of trying to find out about and ranking so many candidates under the [single-transferable vote] system," Cr Vandervis said.
He encouraged voters to research candidates’ specific proposals.
Future Dunedin mayoral candidate Andrew Simms said the turnout was cause for concern.
"It had been hoped that a record turnout of candidates would also translate into a record turnout of voters, but unless there is a significant surge this week then this will not be the case."
He said to voters: "Vote how you please, but please vote".
Dunedin deputy electoral officer Robyn Dillon said voters should not be overwhelmed by the number of candidates or the size of their voting paper.
"You only need to vote for who you want, you don’t have to vote for everyone," she said.
Today is the last day voting papers should be returned by post. From tomorrow onward, ballots should be dropped in one of the orange voting bins located around the city or the electoral office at the Civic Centre in the Octagon.
Special votes can also be made at the Civic Centre, which is open 8.30am-5pm daily and, for enrolled voters, Saturday morning.
Polls will close at noon on Saturday.
