'Thousands' of Tauranga voters are getting in early

Robyn Vercoe (left) and Pauline Payne, 85, were among the steady flow of early voters yesterday at Bethlehem Town Centre. Photo/Andrew Warner

More than 800,000 early votes have already been cast nationwide and one Tauranga advance voting place has had thousands of people through the doors this week.

Yesterday around lunchtime there was a steady flow of people in and out of the Bethlehem Town Centre advance voting place, despite the heavy rain.

A spokesman, who had been working there for the past two weeks, said the number of people coming in to vote had been "increasing all the time".

"Increasingly a wider range of people [too]. There have been a lot of enrolments from younger people, people who have moved into the city - enrolling and voting."

He said senior students from Bethlehem College and from another school down the road had been in to enrol and cast their early votes.

The spokesman had also worked at the advance voting place at Bethlehem Town Centre last election and said there was a notable difference in 2017.

He estimated a 200 per cent increase in the number of early voters and said there had been about 2000 people through the doors both on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

Yesterday was tracking the same and he was expecting today to be busier.

"A lot of them want to vote, they just articulate that - 'I want to vote'."

The spokesman said others just wanted to get it out of the way before Saturday.

That was the case for Charlotte Bayliss, 27, from the Bay of Plenty electorate. She had come to vote in her lunch break.

"So it's quite convenient. I'm voting early because it's easier than lining up with loads of other people on the Saturday."

Robyn Vercoe, 56, was there with Pauline Payne, 85.

"The reason I voted early is because I met this lovely lady the other day. She's had an eye operation and can't drive," Ms Vercoe, voting in the Bay of Plenty electorate, said.

"So I offered to bring her here to do the vote and may as well do my vote at the same time and then do some shopping."

Ms Payne was voting in the Tauranga electorate and said it had worked out well.

"I would still have voted, but it would have cost me a taxi."

Rachel Scarfe, also voting in the Tauranga electorate, said she voted early because she would not be around on Saturday.

"So I've just come in early to get it over and get my views forward."

Rachel Scarfe said she voted early because she would not be around on Saturday to do it. Photo/Andrew Warner

Bernie Urquhart, 76, voting in the Tauranga electorate, said it was very convenient voting early while out at the shops.

"It's extremely busy, but they're pretty efficient and we got through very quickly," he said.

As of 2pm yesterday, there had been 806,043 advance votes cast nationwide.

Overall in 2014, there were 717,579 advance votes and in 2011 there were 334,558.

Those numbers included advance votes cast on the last two days before election day.

The total number of votes cast yesterday had not been added to the 806,043 total.

Advance voting

The advance voting statistics include ordinary and special votes cast within New Zealand and do not include overseas votes.

Although those statistics are being collected, advance votes will not be counted until election day (Saturday). Statistics will not be available by electorate until after election day.