Postal workers such as Venkat Kusam will be in for a slog when voting papers go out. Photo / Richard Robinson
Voting forms and candidate information booklets for local council and district health board elections will arrive in letterboxes from today.
Those eligible and enrolled to vote will receive one voting form covering mayoralty, local council, community boards, the Auckland Regional Council and district health boards.
The voting kit
will also contain a prepaid return envelope.
Dale Ofsoske, an electoral officer for the Auckland region, said it was important for people to vote in local body elections as those in power significantly affected their cities.
"People have a democratic role to play in electing the right people to govern their city and make the right decisions which will affect them."
Health boards are under the Single Transferable Voting (STV) system were candidates are ranked in order. Voting for all other positions will just require a tick.
The candidate information booklet will help voters to make their choices - it contains a picture and 150-word statement from every person standing for election. The document will be divided into regional sections.
Voting sheets are also broken down into communities with voters receiving only information applicable to them.
For those who have not enrolled, have moved address or did not receive their voting package, a special vote can be placed.
"If people have lost their original voting kit, are not enrolled, or if the dog chewed it up, they can give us a call and we will send out a special voting form," said Mr Ofsoske.
But people who have not previously been enrolled will need to go to the nearest PostShop by Friday, October 12, to fill in enrolment details.
Otherwise their efforts to be counted will be fruitless.
"Please don't leave it too late."
Voting closes at noon on Saturday, October 13. Eligible voters are 18 years or older, New Zealand citizens or permanent residents or have lived in New Zealand, continuously, for more than a year.
