Advance votes have increased about 60 percent compared to the previous election, with just under 2 million votes cast before election day this year. The Electoral Commission has reported the statistics this afternoon, recording 1,976,996 total advance votes including 233,575 cast on Friday, the final day before the election. That compares to just 1,240,740 advance votes cast in 2017, which accounted for about 47 percent of the 2,630,173 total votes. The total this year is about 57 percent of the 3,222,064 enrolled voters, so advance votes are likely to account for more than the 60 percent of total votes the Electoral Commission was predicting. The highest polling day for advance votes this year was on 10 October, with 253,111 votes cast on the Saturday a week before the election.

Source: Otago Daily Times October 17, 2020 03:22 UTC