The Electoral Commission has advised anyone who has not yet voted in the first flag referendum to get a wriggle on.
The latest figures showed 1,372,783 voting papers have been returned in the flag referendum, representing 43.3 percent of eligible voters – and tomorrow is the last day for people to vote. Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Robert Peden said people could still get their votes in, by dropping it into a Post Shop. “It’s not too late to get your vote in but you really need to get a wriggle on and our advice is to take it to your nearest Post Shop and put it in the box there, just to be sure of getting it back on time.” But Mr Peden said the commission would still count the stragglers.
“Any voting papers that come through the post to us that are postmarked by the close of play Friday, the close of play tomorrow, that we receive by noon on Tuesday the 15th we are able to count,” Mr Peden said.
The referendum is frequently described as Prime Minister John Key’s pet project, and he was happy with where votes were at. “Yeah, well, it looks pretty good, the understanding I had today is that it’s 43 percent and tracking up obviously with a day or so to go, it shows you people are engaging.
“I suspect when we have the second referendum, which is really the run-off against the current New Zealand flag and the contender, you may even get more people turn out, but we’ll wait and see.”
Full Article: Time runs out in first flag referendum | Radio New Zealand News.