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Western Bay of Plenty Western Bay of Plenty

Information for voters

Voting

Voting opens on 9 September and closes at 12noon Saturday 11 October 2025

If you’re enrolled, check your mailbox for your voting papers between 9 – 22 September 2025. Not everyone in the same household, street or community will receive their voting papers on the same day so please be patient while votes are delivered.

How to return your vote

Post your voting forms or drop them off at an orange voting bin across the region.

You can find your nearest DX box, post box or orange voting bin through this interactive map.

Votes can be dropped in orange bins up to 12 noon on Saturday 11 October. If you are using a NZ Post or DX Mail post box, it is recommended you post your vote no later than Tuesday 7 October to ensure it’s received before the cut-off date. After 7 October, drop your vote in an orange bin instead.

Special votes

Who can cast a special vote

Sometimes you might need to cast a special vote. You will need to do this if:

  • you didn’t receive your voting forms in your letterbox after 22 September 2025
  • you lost or damaged your voting forms
  • you enrolled or updated your address after 1 August 2025
  • you are on the unpublished (confidential) electoral roll
  • your enrolled address is out of date, and you have been living at a new address for a month or more.

Special voting locations

You can cast your special vote during the voting period Tuesday 9 September – 12 noon, Saturday 11 October 2025.

Across the region (except Tauranga), you can cast your special vote at your local council offices. Go to your local district council website for more information regarding special voting.

In Tauranga, you can cast your special vote for the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Tauranga General and Mauao Māori Constituencies at the Bay of Plenty Regional Council Offices, 1 Elizabeth Street during these opening hours:

  • 8.30am–5.00pm, Monday–Friday
  • 8.00am–12 noon, Saturday 11 October 2025.

How to request a special vote

If you can't make it to a special voting location, we can send your special vote papers to you. To request your papers in the post:

Email Elections2025@boprc.govt.nz for help.

Please ensure you make your request early in the voting period, so you have enough time to return your vote to the Electoral Officer by noon, Saturday 11 October 2025.

Special voting process

Casting a special vote is easy. You can vote on site at your local council offices or, in Tauranga, at the Bay of Plenty Regional Council offices or take it away to vote later.

A special vote pack includes:

  • A special voting form
  • A special voting declaration
  • Two envelopes

The packs are available during the voting period from Tuesday 9 September to noon, Saturday 11 October 2025.

 

Enrolling to vote

You can still enrol to vote in the 2025 local elections up until 10 October 2025.

If you enrol after 1 August 2025, you won’t receive your voting papers in the mail. Instead, you’ll need to cast a special vote.

You can enrol to vote or update your enrolment details at vote.nz. Enrolling is easy to do – it takes 30 seconds to do online.

Enrol or update your details online.

You can also:

  • Email enrol@vote.nz
  • call 0800 36 76 56, or
  • freetext your name and address to 3676

If your enrolment details were up to date before 1 August 2025, check your mailbox for your voting papers between 9 – 22 September 2025.

Enrolment packs

If you’re enrolled to vote for the parliamentary elections, then you’re automatically enrolled for Council elections too.

Who can enrol

You can enrol as a resident if you:

  • Are 18 years or older
  • Are a New Zealand Citizen or permanent resident
  • Have lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months or more at some time in your life.

If you’re unsure where to enrol, you can enrol at the address where you spend a substantial part of your time. You can also enrol at the last residential address where you lived for at least 1 month, even if that was some time ago.

If you need help with enrolling or have accessibility needs, the Electoral Commission can help.

Need help to enrol?

If you’re enrolling for the first time and you are of Māori descent, you can choose to enrol on the General roll or the Māori roll.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council is divided into seven constituencies - four general constituencies and three Māori constituencies. Māori roll voters elect a Māori constituency councillor, and general roll voters elect general constituency councillors in their geographic area.

If you’re already enrolled, the deadline for changing between rolls was 10 July 2025 for the 2025 local elections. The option to change rolls for all voters of Māori descent will open again following the local election.

If you own property in the Bay of Plenty but live elsewhere, you may be able to enrol as a non-resident ratepayer elector and vote in both areas. You can check your eligibility by visiting the ElectioNZ ratepayer enrolment portal.

If you enrol after 1 August 2025, you’ll need to cast a special vote. 

You can only enrol, or be nominated to enrol, once in each Council area, no matter how many properties you own in that area.

Contact us on Elections2025@boprc.govt.nz