Today's advance voting statistics are out, showing that 450,000 people voted over the weekend, bringing the total advance vote to 1.15 million - just 90,000 shy of the 2017 total. So its likely that by the end of today, more people will have advance voted than did in the whole 2017 election - and we will still have four days to go! on a modest assumption of 100,000 votes per day - which has been exceeded pretty much every day so far - we would have 1.65 million advance votes. And if we see similar last-week turnout to 2017, we could be looking at 2 million - 60% turnout, and up to 75% of the total votes cast, all before election day.
Its unclear at this stage whether this is going to mean much higher turnout, or whether it is just people getting in early. But either way: kiwis are marching to the ballot boxes, and its great to see.
