250,000 still not enrolled to vote

NATIONAL BUSINESS REVIEW: With just 57 sleeps until the election, 250,000 people still have not enrolled to vote.

Electoral Enrolment Centre national manager Murray Wicks said there was even less time to get on the electoral roll, as it would be closed off on October 8.

At 3pm today, there were already 2,888,508 people enrolled -- 41,112 more than the last election's record setting figure.

Mr Wicks said it was normal for a lot of people to leave it until the last minute but the 2005 election was evidence of the impact that number of voters could have.

"Last election the difference between the first and second parties was 50,000 votes and here's 250,000 people yet to enrol."

Of that number, 100,000 were aged 18 to 24.

"Young people seem to drag the chain a little. They seem to be less engaged, less involved in the electoral process," Mr Wicks said.

Ahead of this election, he said an effort had been made to appeal to youths with new initiatives such as giving candidates profiles on the online social networking site Bebo.

On election day 2005, there were 143,000 people not enrolled. With the process becoming simpler and faster each year Mr Wicks said the aim was always to get everyone on board.

Enrolment forms are available at Post Shops, by free texting your name and address to 3676, phoning the enrolment centre on 0800 367 656 or from the website www.elections.org.nz.