With less than a week to go, only 47% of Waihemo voters have returned their voting papers to elect a councillor to represent their ward on the Waitaki District Council.
Voting closes at noon on Friday and electoral officer Joanne Firman yesterday said she wanted to remind voters to return their papers.
The by-election is to elect one councillor from three candidates - Maria Barta Hinkley, Ken Brown (current Waihemo Community Board member) and Kathy Dennison (current Waihemo Community Board member) to replace Alex Familton, who was elected Waitaki Mayor in October.
Voting papers have to be in the hands of the council's electoral office in Oamaru by the deadline, not just in the post.
Towards the end of the week, voters should deliver their papers to a box at the council's headquarters in Oamaru, not the Waihemo service centre, rather than posting them.
By yesterday morning, 804 voting papers had been returned of the 1697 sent out a fortnight ago.
