By Thursday evening 6.5% of votes had been returned, compared to 6.2% at the same time in 2013.
The end result then was a return of just 43% of voting forms in Dunedin.
That continued the trend of a decline over the last 15 years, except for 2010, when votes increased on the election before, with a 53.4% turnout.
But University of Otago political studies lecturer Assoc Prof Janine Hayward said it was too early to be concerned, as the mail system might mean postal voting forms, sent on Friday last week, were delivered at varying times.
Prof Hayward said it was important to wait and see.
New Zealand Post had been "mucking around with the mail system", and it was hard to know when batches of papers arrived.
"I know last time that led to some really lumpy accumulation of votes that we hadn’t really seen in the past, and there was an awful lot of head-scratching about what on earth that could be about.
"It was just because they changed the delivery date."
Prof Hayward said she paid less and less attention to how the votes were accumulating, and more attention to the final result.
She said the increased return in 2010 related to Auckland issues that got plenty of media coverage, which raised voting awareness in the regions.
People remembered there was a local government election on and there was a rise of about 10% in voting.
"It’s just as simple as that.
"That shows the effect national media has."
The decline was still occurring however, with a drop from 47% in 2007 to 43% in 2013.
Apart from 2010, the decline was about 2% a year.
"That’s not good, so we do have an issue."
Prof Hayward said it was worth adding online voting to the mix for electors.
Last year Dunedin city councillors voted 10-4 not to take part in a planned online voting trial at this year’s elections.
Thirteen councils around New Zealand had registered their interest in the trial, the costs of which are to be shared among them.
Chief electoral officer Warwick Lampp said at the time online voting was not a "silver bullet" and had not been shown to significantly increase voter turnout.
Earlier this year the trial was scrapped.
Associate Local Government Minister Louise Upston said in April security testing of the new voting method had been prepared but could not be carried out in time for the election.
Prof Hayward agreed online was not the whole answer but said it was "worth bolting on as many things as you can to encourage people to vote".
"... why not, if it can be done safely and securely, why would we not have that as an option?"
"If it makes a difference for 5% of the voters, that’s a huge difference," Prof Hayward said.
In the regions, Queenstown Lakes District Council returns stood at 9.9% on Thursday, Waitaki District Council 15.9% the Central Otago District Council 18.9%, and the Clutha District Council 9.4%.
DCC voting returns
As at Thursday, 5.57pm 6.5%
Same time 2013 6.2%
Same time 2010 8.1%
Same time 2007 9.6%
