Elections 2011 – Voter Turnout

Voter turnout for the 2011 General Election was well down on the 2008 turnout. In 2008 around 78% of registered electors voted, whereas this year the figure is around 67%.

I've put together the following analysis of the changes in voter turnout using the preliminary results along with the 2008 data. Note that 2008 figures have been used for the elected voter numbers, which may misrepresent the analysis for electorates where migration has since occurred (i.e. Christchurch Central).

Biggest Turnout By Electorate

In terms of voter turnout, the Rodney electorate moved up four spots to number one. This is likely due to the newly formed Conservative Party standing their leader, Colin Craig in this electorate; making a three-way race between the Conservatives, National and Labour. In the end, National's Mark Mitchell had a comfortable win with Colin Craig picking up a credible second place.

The West Coast-Tasman electorate stormed into ninth place, moving up 20 places from the last election on the back of spirited campaigns from National's Chris Auchinvole and Labour's Damien O'Connor. O'Connor ended the night with over a 2,000 vote majority, which sees him reclaiming the seat.

Lowest Turnout By Electorate

The Maori seats traditionally have low voter turnouts, so there's no surprise in seeing them at the bottom of the stats. Christchurch Central figures in the bottom 10 as a result of the Christchurch Earthquake.

Biggest increase in Turnout By Electorate

The biggest increases in voter turnout were mainly where high-profile electorate battles were taking place for the Candidate vote. In New Plymouth, Labour's Andrew Little made a concerted (but failed) attempt to take the seat from Nationals Jonathan Young. As mentioned above, O'Connor managed to reclaim the West Coast-Tasman seat he lost in 2008 and in Waitakere, Labour's Carmel Sepuloni was in the fight of her life, unsuccessfully trying to remain in Parliament by capturing the seat off National's Paula Bennett.

Biggest decrease in Turnout By Electorate

The biggest drop-offs in voter turnout were both in quake ravaged Christchurch and the main urban centres, with the urban drop-off likely being to do with the collapse of the Labour vote. Not Surprised to see Epsom on this list, as voters had shown disinterest in Act's John Banks, who was favoured by National.

Definitely surprised to see Auckland Central in this list though, as National's Nikki Kaye and Labours Jacinda Ardern both put up spirited campaigns, with Kaye emerging victorious.

Wellington Central was an absolute shocker for Labour, and of their voters who did turn-out, a large proportion shifted their party vote to the Greens. The Greens and Labour picked up around 8,000 party votes each, while National picked up around 12,000.

Voter turnout by Electorate – Full Results

Data Sourced from: www.electionresults.govt.nz