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Home / Rotorua Daily Post

Rotorua man Adrian Firmin on road with his van to help people vote

Jordan Bond
By Jordan Bond
Reporter·Rotorua Daily Post·
18 Sep, 2017 06:00 PM2 mins to read

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Rotorua teacher Adrian Firmin is passionate about democracy - and he's putting that into fifth gear this election by giving people a lift to make sure they can vote.

With the election looming on Saturday, Mr Firmin's offering to drive people who don't have transport to polling stations to make sure they can have a chance to choose the next Government.

Mr Firmin, a teacher at Rotorua Intermediate, said hardship or difficulty should not stop someone from being able to vote.

"There's a lot of people who face a lot of struggles these days - not everyone owns a car, not everyone has the ability to get to the polling stations and back . . . it can mean a hike of a couple of kilometres for some people," he said.

"If I can help out with my car then everyone can participate in democracy."

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Mr Firmin has a seven-seater van and said he'd be willing to run people around the city all day. He's promised not to try to sway or convince anyone who to vote for - but you might have to listen to some alternative rock on the radio.

"Some people seem quite confused about how you go about voting so hopefully I can clarify that for them too."

About 55,000 are enrolled to vote in Rotorua so far - 43,638 on the general roll and 12,361 on the Maori roll to vote in the Waiariki electorate. This was almost 91 per cent of all people eligible.

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Mr Firmin said he thought this election was probably the most interesting of his life.

"I think it's important right now, with some of the issues facing us, that everyone has a chance to have their say."

Last election, 78 per cent of eligible voters in Rotorua did so, and 64 per cent of Waiariki voters. The national average was 76.8 per cent.

There are now five advance voting stations throughout the city - at Rotorua Central Mall, a central city station on Fenton St, Ngongotaha Community Hall, Mokoia Community Hall and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology.

On election day there will be 54 places to vote throughout the entire electorate.

You can enrol to vote up until Friday at elections.org.nz.

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