A leaflet about the Port Waikato by-election. Photo: Emma Stanford / RNZ
It is the last day of campaigning in the Port Waikato by-election before polls close on Saturday night.
The National Party is hoping to hold on to the seat - one of its strongholds - standing against New Zealand First and a slew of minor parties.
Although Friday will be mostly spent taking down hoardings, candidates are encouraging those who have not already to take to the polls.
Despite concern there could be poor voter turnout in the by-election - sparked by the death of ACT candidate Neil Christensen - the numbers have been cracking.
Since advance voting opened almost two weeks ago, 10,541 people have voted (as of 22 November). That compared to 7900 for the same period in the Hamilton West by-election last year.
Morning Report spoke to some people in Pukekohe, the main town in the electorate, which covers Manukau Heads to Te Kauwhata, including Pōkeno, and Waiuku.
Hiren had already voted and said it was very easy to do. Estelle and Lynne had also voted, and said it was important to have a say about what happens in the area.
National MP and electorate incumbent Andrew Bayly said despite two weeks of advance voting, there was still confusion.
"Hopefully a by-election like this should get 18-20,000 [people voting], so whether we can get people out, but I sense people have turned off a little bit, partly because they don't know. I've had people shout at me across the street, in their cars saying where can they go to vote?
"People are just not seeing it. A lot of people thought the vote happened last Saturday."
Bayly's main competition is Casey Costello from NZ First. She was surprised by the turnout so far, but thought fewer than half of eligible voters would make the effort.
"I've been amazed that there's been a lot more engagement. There's always the odd one that's like, 'I'm not going to vote,' but those are more people that have never voted.
"But there was a real, at the start, a real lack of awareness that there was a by-election on. I actually got calls from people saying, 'I don't want to get you in trouble, but your hoardings are still up.'"
If either win the seat, Parliament will have 123 seats - the biggest ever.
Andrew Bayly. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Former Labour MP Sue Moroney said adding a few more MPs won't change too much.
"Doesn't necessarily change the way in which Parliament operates. It simply changes the numbers available for voting and of course increases the cost to the taxpayer slightly. So that's something that should be brought in mind when the new government thinks about how they address this for the future."
Anna Rippon from the Animal Justice Party hoped people in all areas of the electorate would put voting on their to-do list this weekend.
"I'm hoping that a lot more people will come out on Saturday. A lot of people are busy working and hopefully they'll take the opportunity to come out with their families on Saturday morning, go out for a stroll and make their vote count."
There were six places open to vote on Friday and 37 on Saturday, before polls close at 7pm.
Voting locations can be found online at vote.nz.
