Last chance to vote is now

Your opportunity to drop your completed voting papers off to one of our ballot boxes is rapidly reducing as the voting deadline of midday on Saturday 11 October closes in. If you haven’t dropped your completed voting papers off yet – do it now!

Anyone wanting their vote to count must now deliver it in person to a ballot box at one of our eight service centres or Mobile Ballot Box Tour locations. FNDC candidate profiles and videos are available on our Speak Up and Vote website.

Only three council service centres will be open on Saturday 11 October, from 9am until midday. They are Kaitāia (at Te Ahu), Kerikeri (in Procter Library) and Kaikohe (council headquarters). Special votes will also be possible at these service centres before midday on Saturday.

Friday 10 October is the last day of the Mobile Ballot Box Tour. On that day, our vans will be visiting:

• Bay of Islands-Whangaroa Ward - Te Kura Kaupapa Māori o Taumārere, 10am to 5pm
• Te Hiku Ward – Kaitāia Pak n Save 11am to 2pm
• Te Hiku Ward – Taipā, 3pm to 5pm.

Anyone 18 or older that is a resident, or a ratepayer, in the district is eligible to vote.

As of Thursday 9 October, Kaipara District Council was still leading a meme-themed competition between Northland councils to get the highest voter turnout. KDC was at 40.4 per cent, FNDC at 39.2 per cent, Northland Regional Council at 36.6 per cent and Whangārei District Council at 33.7 per cent. You can read about that competition here - Race to win votes heats up on two fronts.

Progressive results

On Saturday 11 October the first indication of the election results are expected after 3pm. These first results are based on ballots returned between 9 September and 10 October. They will reveal vote counts for mayoral, councillor, and local community board candidates as well as progress results on the Māori Ward referendum. This early count is expected to reflect 90 per cent of all votes.

However, these are progressive results only – Saturday morning’s votes won’t be included in this tally and special votes will still need to be validated.

These results will be published on our Election Results 2025 website. This page will be activated only when results are available.

Preliminary results – Sunday 12 October

By Sunday preliminary results will include votes cast on Saturday morning. Special votes will still need to be counted at this stage, so the final count will not yet be known.

A news story outlining the preliminary results will be published on Sunday afternoon on our website.

Official results declared – Friday 17 October

The final count isn’t available until the following Friday. This includes every verified vote, including special votes. The official results will confirm who has won the votes for mayor, ward councillors and community board members.

From Saturday 18 October, the newly elected leaders will officially take office.

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Main image - one of the memes that has featured in the election competition between Northland councils to get the highest voter turnout.