The number of New Zealanders living overseas and enrolled to vote is 35 per cent higher than before the last election.
The Electoral Enrolment Centre's figures follow information from Statistics New Zealand today showing the number of Kiwis leaving for Australia in the past year has hit thehighest levels since 2001.
Murray Wicks, national manager of the Electoral Enrolment Centre said: "New Zealanders overseas might be out of sight, but for a large number of them New Zealand is certainly not out of mind.
"At the start of the enrolment drive, 47,760 were enrolled with overseas postal addresses, compared with 35,650 at the same time in 2005."
Of those enrolled overseas, more than 28,500 are in Australia and around 8,600 are in England.
In 2005 28,145 votes were cast from overseas.
More of the hundreds of thousands of Kiwis living overseas are now being targeted in the enrolment drive.
Who can enrol?
You must be:
* 18 years or older, and
* have lived in New Zealand for more than one year continuously at some time in your life
* be a New Zealand citizen and have been in New Zealand within the last three years, or be a permanent resident of New Zealand and have been in New Zealand in the last 12 months
How can I enrol?
* go to www.elections.org.nz * free txt your name and address to 3676
* get a form at a PostShop
* call 0800 36 76 56
