A technical problem caused 42 out-of-town voters to initially not receive voting forms for this week's Otago Regional Council by-election.
The voting deadline for the Dunstan by-election ends at noon today, and preliminary results are expected this afternoon.
It was triggered by the death of councillor Maggie Lawton in March.
The two candidates are former Queenstown Lakes district councillor and Dr Lawton's daughter Ella Lawton and former Otago regional councillor Gary Kelliher, who farms in the Manuherikia Valley, near Alexandra.
Initially, 42 voters were incorrectly omitted from the roll.
Dunedin City Council electoral officer Pam Jordan said a technical problem arose when the company which was contracted to manage the election, electionz.com, tried to merge parliamentary and ratepayer rolls.
This meant some people from the Queenstown Lakes rate-payer roll were omitted.
These voters would largely live outside of the district.
``They [electionz.com] have taken measures to ensure this doesn't happen again.''
Mr Kelliher lost to Michael Laws in last year's regional council elections by only five votes.
New forms and fast-post envelopes were sent to those voters last Tuesday, she said.
``I believe if they filled them out and sent them fast post, they will arrive on time.''
Yesterday morning, 12,087 votes were cast in the election out of about 36,000 enrolled voters.
``So that's about a third. By-elections tend to have a lower turnout than standard elections.''
