Casting your vote
Voting opens on Tuesday, 9 September and closes at noon on Election Day, Saturday, 11 October 2025.
Postal voting
If you were enrolled to vote before the electoral roll closed on 1 August 2025, you will receive your voting papers in the mail in September 2025.
Post your completed voting papers by 7 October 2025 to ensure they are received on time or drop them into one of the orange voting bins around the city by 12 noon on Saturday, 11 October 2025.
Special voting
Special voting is available to electors:
- whose names do not appear on the final electoral roll, but who qualify as electors
- who did not receive a voting paper previously posted to them
- who spoil or damage a voting paper previously posted to them.
Special voters must complete a statutory declaration. This is a legal requirement and a protection against possible duplicate voting.
To cast a special vote or to collect a special voting pack, please visit the Plaza Meeting Room on the ground floor of the Dunedin Civic Centre.
Special voting pop-ups
Collect your special voting papers at these special voting pop-up sessions.
- Waikouaiti Library – Tuesday, 23 September, 11am to 1pm
- Blueskin Bay Library – Tuesday, 23 September, 2pm to 4pm
- Mosgiel Library – Wednesday, 24 September, 10am to 1pm
- Port Chalmers Library – Wednesday, 24 September, 2.30pm to 4.30pm
- University of Otago Link – Wednesday, 1 October, 10am to 2pm
- University of Otago Link – Thursday 2 October, 10am to 2pm.
The electoral office in the Plaza Meeting Room at the Civic Centre will also have open evenings on Thursday, 25 September and Wednesday, 1 October from 5pm to 7pm.
Request to have a special voting pack directly posted
If time allows, special voting documents can be posted out directly to electors (before 1 October 2025). The completed voting paper must be in the hands of the Electoral Officer or the Deputy Electoral Officer by 12 noon on Election Day, Saturday, 11 October 2025.
Please fill out the form below if you are unable to visit the electoral office between Tuesday, 9 September and 12 noon on Saturday, 11 October 2025, and you wish to have special voting documents posted directly to you.
Request to have a special voting pack directly postedIf you request a special voting pack and you are not on the electoral roll, you must enrol by Friday, 10 October 2025. You can do this online at vote.nz. If you are not able to enrol online, visit vote.nz/enrolling/enrol-or-update/other-ways-to-enrol for more options, or call 0800 36 76 56 to arrange for enrolment forms to be sent to you directly.
Single Transferable Vote (STV)
Dunedin City Council (DCC) elections use the Single Transferable Vote (STV) system.
This allows voters to rank electoral candidates in order of preference. Your top choice should be ranked 1, your second choice 2, and so on.
If there are any candidates you don’t want to see elected, then don’t rank them.
You can rank as many or as few candidates as you like – but for your vote to count, there needs to be a candidate ranked at number 1 on your voting paper.
When ranking your preferred candidates, there must only be one of each number, and the numbers must be in sequence. If you make a mistake, your vote will be valid up until the point of error. For example, if you have 1, 2, 3 and 5 (missing out 4), only your top three choices will be valid.
Where to vote
Special votes (in person)
Special votes can be made in person at the DCC’s Electoral Office on the ground floor of the Civic Centre in The Octagon.
Opening hours:
8.30am to 5pm on weekdays, Tuesday 9 September to Friday 10 October 2025
8.30am to 12 noon, Saturday 11 October 2025
Voting here closes | Location | |
|---|---|---|
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | Plaza Meeting Room, DCC Civic Centre | Ground floor (top of the escalator), 50 The Octagon, Dunedin |
Ballot boxes (orange bins)
Voting here closes | Location | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | Plaza Meeting Room, DCC Civic Centre | Ground floor (top of the escalator), 50 The Octagon, Dunedin | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Waikouaiti Community Library | 192 Main Road, Waikouaiti 9510 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Blueskin Bay Public Library | 28 Harvey Street, Waitati 9085 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Port Chalmers Library | Cnr Beach and Grey Street, Port Chalmers, Dunedin 9023 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Bookbuses | Check timetable | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | Mosgiel Library | 7 Hartstonge Avenue, Mosgiel 9024 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | Dunedin City Library | 110 Moray Place, Dunedin 9054 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | South Dunedin Library | 148 King Edward Street, South Dunedin | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Dunedin Hospital | 201 Great King Street, Central Dunedin, Dunedin 9016 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Otago University | 362 Leith Street, Dunedin North, Dunedin 9016 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Otago Polytechnic | Forth Street, Dunedin | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Mitre 10 MEGA Dunedin | 350 Andersons Bay Road, South Dunedin, Dunedin 9012 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Edgar Centre | 116 Portmouth Drive, Anderson Bay, Dunedin 9012 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Larsons Pharmacy | 216 Main South Road, Green Island, Dunedin 9018 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Cafe Maggies | 16 Aberafon Street, Middlemarch 9597 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Middlemarch Postal Agency | 19 Swansea Street, Middlemarch 9597 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | New World Gardens | 6 North Road, North East Valley, Dunedin 9010 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | New World Central City | 133 Great King Street, Central Dunedin, Dunedin 9016 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | New World Mosgiel | 10 Hartstonge Avenue, Mosgiel 9024 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | Woolworths Dunedin Central | 309 Cumberland Street, Dunedin 9016 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | Woolworths Dunedin South | 323 Andersons Bay Road, Dunedin 9012 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Woolworths Mornington | 43 Mailer Street, Dunedin Otago 9011 | |
| 12 noon, Friday 10 October | Woolworths Mosgiel | 55 Gordon Road, Mosgiel 9024 | |
| 12 noon, Saturday 11 October | PaknSave | 86 Hillside Road, South Dunedin, Dunedin 9012 | |