Anipātene Williams turns 18 on New Zealand's new election day, October 17.
She got a flurry of messages from her whānau after Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's announcement on Monday.
"I thought 'wow, she was thinking of me,'" the Rotorua Girls' High School deputy head girl joked this week.
"Then I actually felt a lot of pressure. It is a huge honour and now I have to really look into it."
Anipātene is one of a handful of students at the school whose birthdays fall between the former election date, September 19, and the new date October 17.
Their birthdays now fall just inside the eligible voter date range. Before Monday's announcement, they were too young.
Fellow student Faye Pohowai turns 18 three weeks before election day.
She didn't take much interest in politics until doing debates in class in her early years at high school.
"That opened my eyes to the political world."
In Faye's opinion, having a young, female prime minister is the "coolest thing ever".
"I was so gutted when I couldn't vote because I couldn't support her."
Te Waiwhakaata Ratu's birthday is on October 12 and she plans to go to university next year, so she has a close eye on policies that impact tertiary education and fees.
For iwi members like her, the election isn't just a matter of choosing who to vote for, and whether she supports the referendum issues, it's also a matter of choosing whether she wants to enrol on the Māori or general roll.
"I actually enrolled on Monday when I found out it was postponed, I went onto the Māori roll."
Wellington teen Gina Dao-McLay, co-director of the "Make it 16 campaign" will turn 18 on September 27.
Her campaign group has been pushing for the voting age to be reduced to 16, arguing it is inconsistent with the Bill of Rights Act and is taking their fight to the High Court.
"The decisions that politicians make are going to affect us as young people the most, in the future ... We want to make sure that politicians care about our thoughts as well."
Stats NZ estimates there are about 5000 New Zealanders who turn 18 between the old and new election dates but not all are necessarily eligible to vote.
As of this week, there were 450,500 eligible voters aged 18 to 24 in New Zealand but Electoral Commission data shows 162,523 are not enrolled.
In the Rotorua electorate specifically, 63.5 per cent of the 7700 people aged 18 to 24 are enrolled.
Overall in the Rotorua electorate, 57,310 or 86.1 per cent of the eligible population is enrolled so far.
An Electoral Commission spokesman said getting more young people to vote had been one of the Commission's top priorities.
He said measures to do so included employing youth advocates, undertaking a variety of community engagement activities and targeted advertising and information.
"We strongly encourage people to whatever age to enrol early to make voting easier and faster and this time round people can enrol on election day."
Some people are ineligible if they've been overseas for long periods in the last three years, are in prison or have certain criminal convictions.
Key election issues:
The Covid-19 response and management of the borders and climate change.
Parties of interest:
Considering National, Labour and New Zealand First. "I have thought about it a lot but I haven't picked."
MPs of interest:
"I have seen their billboards but I haven't looked at what they've done yet."
Referendum:
Still thinking about the euthanasia referendum, yes for legalising cannabis. "My family member used it when she had cancer and it took a lot of the pain away."
Key election issues:
Education, both for schools and tertiary education and funding for sportswomen.
Parties of interest:
Not sure yet. "My family is all about Labour then other parts of my family are all about National."
MPs of interest:
Going to do more research. "Living out of town I drive through all of their billboards."
Referendum:
Unsure about cannabis but voting yes for euthanasia. "I have watched some family members go through terminal illnesses so I am really keen on voting yes and helping other people that are going through that right now."
Te Ngae Rd's speed limit will rise from 50km/h to 60km/h after a review.
