Gisborne voting surge falls away but 2022 turnout could be surpassed

Voting in the Gisborne District Council election closes at midday on Saturday at various purple and orange public ballot boxes distributed around Tairāwhiti, including Gisborne District Council (pictured) and a drive-through in the Marina carpark.

Wednesday’s influx of 2125 Gisborne District Council local body votes seems to have been a one-off surge, with fewer combined votes being received yesterday and today.

Only 1650 votes were received during the last two days - 500 yesterday and 1150 today.

That took the total voter turnout to 36.9% of eligible voters, with 12,575 votes received.

Turnout is still well ahead of the corresponding time in 2022, which was 32.4%. The final election turnout was 43.4%.

At the same time during the 2019 election, voter turnout was 38% and the final turnout was 50.1%.

In the Tairāwhiti general ward, 8575 votes (38.4% turnout) have been received, while in the Tairāwhiti Māori ward, 4000 votes (34.1%) have been received.

Voter turnout is not high in the rest of the country.

According to Auckland Council, 261,500 votes had been returned as of yesterday, which amounted to just 21.9% of eligible voters.

Some results are expected to be available as early as 2pm on election day, two hours after voting ends.

However, Gisborne uses the single transferable vote (STV) system, which takes longer to count than the first past the post (FPP) system used by some other territorial authorities.

The “progress result”, consisting of Gisborne votes cast before Saturday, will be made public on Saturday.

The “preliminary result”, which will also take in votes received on Saturday, will be made public on Sunday.

The “final result”, which will take in special votes, will be announced next week.