''If you don't vote, you lose your chance to have influence on what happens to your quality of life now and in the future,'' Massey University planning lecturer Associate Prof Christine Cheyne said.
Councils were responsible for making decisions on a range of matters that affected people's daily lives.
''And if you're leaving it to other people to vote, it means those elected are less likely to reflect you and what you would like to see happen, and far more likely to reflect a narrower cross section of the community - typically those older, affluent and Pakeha.''
A critical issue affecting local body elections was the lack of information on candidates, she said.
''The candidate profile booklets are an improvement on nothing, but they're far from sufficient for informing us, because they are largely ''motherhood and apple pie'' statements, candidates saying what people what to hear, not talking about their track record and where they really stand on issues.''
While people could visit vote.co.nz for information on candidates, and some local media did a good job interviewing contenders on their views, more quality web-based material accessible to all voters was essential.
This was especially important for district health board elections, and parts of the country using the STV electoral system, such as Dunedin.
Everybody needed to recognise the value of local body elections.
''Elections matter. People need to value their right to vote, and have a say in the future of their community.''
But central government agencies also needed to value local government by providing resources to support, and make it easier for. voters in local elections.
They could do much more, she said.
''For example, there's the electronic-voting pilot in 2016, but we should have had this now, in 2013. E-voting is well established in local elections in several countries similar to New Zealand, so we could have easily achieved this.''
Porirua City Council and Palmerston North District Council would trial e-voting in 2016 but Prof Cheyne said that did not go far enough.
''We shouldn't confine the trial to just two areas, I think it's a reflection of inadequate resourcing. Ideally I'd like to see it widely used in 2016, and there's plenty of time for that to happen. It's just a question of the priority given to local body elections.
''Local councils have a lot of influence over our daily lives, so it's important to cast your vote; it can make a difference.''
People need to post their voting papers by today, or deliver them directly to the council before noon on Saturday.
