Final results from the Northcote by-election are in and one clear voting trend has emerged.
Photo: RNZ / Sarah Robson
More and more people are voting early.
The results show 57 percent voters in the Northcote by-election did so early, and chief electoral officer Alicia Wright said this was the first time more votes were cast during early voting, than on election day.
"So what we saw in terms of the advance vote for the general election was it was at 47 percent, and again that was the highest it had been for a general election as well so that had gone from 15 percent in 2011, to 30 percent in 2014 and then popped up to 47 percent in 2017.
"Clearly New Zealanders have a lot going on during Saturday and are taking the opportunity to vote early."
Electoral Commission rules prevent any campaigning on election day to stop people being influenced on their way into the voting booth.
But in many ways that becomes redundant with more people are voting early, while parties are in full-on campaign mode.
And politicians of all stripes are open to change.
National Party leader Simon Bridges said there was no question the move to more early voting is a phenomenon.
"I don't know what the answer is in terms of how the rules might work, I mean at one level they must be working because people can do what they're doing, and if that's how people want to vote earlier then that's okay by me and by the National Party."
Labour's campaign manager Michael Wood said his team's been talking about this a lot since last year's election, and more so following the by-election result.
"That is one of the things we're thinking about a lot, we have very strict restrictions on election day but you can say that's a bit of a nonsense given that you have none of those at the time when most people are actually voting.
"Having a degree of harmony between those two periods makes a level of sense, so we're just going to work that through and what we usually do after elections is engage with the Electoral Commission around these kinds of matters."
Green Party leader James Shaw agreed it made sense to harmonise election day with the early voting period.
"I don't think that it necessarily think that means applying the same rules that you have on election day to the entire period leading up to it because that would be largely nonsensical, but I do think it makes more sense to have your rules for election day be more aligned in the two weeks leading up to it."
The Electoral Commission recognised it has become an inconsistency but said it was up to Parliament to make change.
The Justice and Electoral Committee is finalising its terms of reference for an inquiry into the 2017 general election - and aims to launch it in two weeks.
