Preparations are in full swing to ensure election day on Saturday, October 11, and the weeks leading up to it, run as smoothly as possible.
Dunedin City Council deputy electoral officer Robyn Dillon urged residents to enroll, vote and return their papers — either by posting them, ideally before October 7 so they were received on time, or by dropping them in orange voting bins across the city by noon on election day.
Voting papers were being sent to ordinary voters — 94,728 in the Dunedin City Council area — from today, but might not arrive until September 22, Ms Dillon said.
Residents could cast a special vote at the council building in the Octagon if their papers did not arrive by then.
"But don’t panic before the 22nd," she said.
Those on the unpublished roll could get their voting papers from the election office in the Dunedin Civic Centre.
Dunedin voters "apparently" liked to return their voting papers on election day, but she encouraged people not to leave it to the last minute, Ms Dillon said.
"You don’t vote for everybody on the ballot, just vote for the people you want to represent you." .
Special votes could be made in person at the civic centre from today until Friday, October 10, weekdays 8.30am to 5pm, and on election day, 8.30am to noon.
"We’ll have a couple of late nights, which we’ll advertise, and we will also go to the libraries for half a day."
A "very small" plane had been charted to get election-day votes to Christchurch, where southern ballots were counted.
After voting closed in previous elections, voting papers had been sent north on a commercial flight in suitcases accompanied by two electoral workers, but flight timetable changes had made that unworkable, Ms Dillon said.
One electoral worker and the pilot would accompany the votes, expected to be a few thousand, to Christchurch.
Votes dropped in voting bins before election day would be collected by couriers.
The large number of candidates standing in elections across Dunedin had required some changes to the voting packets, she said.
Previously, information on all candidates, including those standing for community boards and regional council, was included in one booklet which accompanied voting papers.
"It would have been too thick to fit in the normal envelopes to post to everybody in Dunedin."
Instead, voters would receive one of two booklets, which would include information on the elections a resident could vote in, but not those outside their area.
Sixteen people are standing for the Dunedin mayoralty and 54 are seeking a seat at the city council table.
Voters would also elect councillors to the Otago Regional Council — either in the Molyneux or Dunedin constituencies — and in some areas, residents could vote for community boards and the Oamaru Licensing Trust.
A full list of voting bins is available on the council website.
