Hamilton had its highest vote return this election period yesterday, with 3.9% of voting papers received. This brought Hamilton City Council's voter turnout to just over 17%. At the same point in 2019, 30% of votes had been returned. With only a few days remaining until Election Day, 19,175 people have voted – 17.4% of the 110,183 registered voters. 4250 votes were received yesterday.

The breakdown of votes returned by ward is:

• East – 10,050 votes, 19.2% of the 52,269 enrolled
• West – 8025 votes, 18.0% of the 44,667 enrolled
• Kirikiriroa Maaori Ward – 1100 votes, 8.3% of the 13,247 enrolled

Anyone that hasn’t cast their vote should return their voting packs to ballot box (by midday Saturday 8 October) to ensure it can be counted.