Voting, special votes and wards
How to vote
If you are enrolled to vote, your voting documents will be delivered to your mailbox from Tuesday 9 September 2025.
Your voting pack will include a candidate profile book, personalised voting papers, freepost return envelope and instructions on how to complete your voting papers.
Once you have filled in your voting papers, put them in the freepost envelope and do one of the following:
- Post your voting papers back no later than Tuesday 7 October (see below for more info).
- Drop off your voting papers in any of our Big Orange Ballot Bins by 12 noon on Saturday 11 October 2025 (see locations and exact times below).
Posting your voting papers
Put your voting papers in the post no later than Tuesday 7 October 2025 to make sure it arrives in time to be counted.
You can return your voting papers in the post at any NZ Post Mail Box or DX Mail Street Box using the freepost envelope provided.
- Find your nearest NZ Post Mail Box: On the NZ Post website, enter your address in the search field, click on search and then select 'Mail Box' to show the location of NZ Post Mail Boxes near you.
- DX Mail Street Box: in the Taupō District, DX Mail Street Boxes can be found at 30 Tongariro Street, 106 Rifle Range Road and 171 Karapiti Road.
Drop off your voting papers in our Big Orange Ballot Bins
To make it easier to return your vote, this election we welcome back our Big Orange Ballot Bins (also known as BOBBs) located throughout the district. Check out our interactive map or explore the locations below.
Voting papers can be dropped off at the locations below until 12 noon Saturday 11 October 2025, unless stated otherwise. Tūrangi Customer and Visitor Information Centre will be closing at the earlier time than usual of 12 noon.
Taupō
- Taupō Customer and Visitor Information Centre: 30 Tongariro Street
- Taupō Events Centre / AC Baths: 26 AC Baths Avenue
- Taupō Library: Story Place
- Kemps General Store: 156 Acacia Bay Road, Nukuhau
- Mitre 10 MEGA Taupō: 99 Bella George Lane
- PAK'nSAVE Taupō: 105/131 Ruapehu Street
- The Landing Lake Taupō: 650 Lake Terrace, Wharewaka
- The Warehouse Taupō: 11 Taniwha Street
- Woolworths Taupō South: 16 Kokomea Village Drive
Kinloch
- Kinloch General Store: 2 Mata Place
Mangakino
- Mangakino 4 Square: Civic Centre, Main Road (Rangatira Drive)
Tūrangi
- Tūrangi Customer and Visitor Information Centre: 1 Ngawaka Place
- New World Tūrangi: 19 Ohuanga Road
Special voting
When you need to cast a special vote
Casting a special vote is something you will need to do if any of the following apply to you:
- you are eligible to enrol to vote, but haven't actually enrolled yet – you can check if you're enrolled and enrol online on the vote.nz website (note the last day you can enrol is Friday 10 October 2025)
- you do not receive your voting papers in the post by 22 September 2025
- you receive voting papers in the mail, but they are damaged or spoiled
- you are on the unpublished roll (that is, your name does not show on one of the publicly available electoral rolls)
- you will be overseas and based in the same place during the voting period.
How to cast a special vote
The easiest way to cast a special vote:
Go to one of our customer service centres in Taupō, Tūrangi or Mangakino where our team will guide you through the process and give you the voting papers. You can do this anytime during our opening hours in the voting period, from Tuesday 9 September to 12 noon on Saturday 11 October 2025.
If you’re unable to make it into a customer service centre:
You can ask us to send you a special voting pack by calling us on 07 376 0899 or email info@taupo.govt.nz. You will need to request the special voting pack early in the voting period – as close as possible to 9 September – to ensure there’s enough time to post the voting papers to you and for you to return your vote before voting closes.
Once you have filled in your voting papers, put them in the freepost envelope and do one of the following:
- Post your voting papers back no later than Tuesday 7 October (see section above for more info).
- Drop off your voting papers in any of our Big Orange Ballot Bins by 12 noon on Saturday 11 October 2025 (see locations and exact times in section above)
Voting and wards
The Taupō District is made up of four general electoral wards (Taupō Ward, Mangakino/Pouakani Ward, Taupō East Rural Ward, Tūrangi/Tongariro Ward) and one district-wide Māori Ward (Te Papamārearea).
If you are on the general roll, where you live determines which ward you get to vote in and how many candidates you get to vote for, plus you get a vote for the Mayor. Anyone on the Māori electoral roll will have two votes for their preferred candidates for the Māori ward, plus a vote for the Mayor.
The Taupō District Council election will be for the Mayor and 12 councillors as follows:
- Mayor elected at large
- Taupō General Ward (7 councillors)
- Mangakino/Pouakani General Ward (1 councillor)
- Taupō East Rural General Ward (1 councillor)
- Tūrangi/Tongariro General Ward (1 councillor)
- One district-wide Māori Ward – Te Papamārearea (2 councillors)
For information on how to enrol to vote or update your details, go to the vote.nz website.
Note the makeup of voting areas (wards) and boundaries in the Taupō District was confirmed following a Local Government Commission review of our 2021 Representation Review, with a final decision released on 7 April 2022.
Not sure ward you are in or where to find your closest voting station? Check out this handy map.
Simply put your address in and it will show you the ward you may be able to vote in, the candidates, and important information about where to vote and when.
Returns counted
Find out how many votes have been returned in our district here.
Simply select Taupō District Council and you can see in real-time the number of votes returned, both for the district as a whole, and for each separate ward. The numbers will be updated daily.
There’s also a handy comparison showing the numbers returned in the 2016, 2019, and 2022 local elections. In 2022 just under 50% of votes across the district were returned so let’s get voting Taupō District. We want to see an increase in voting this year!
You won’t see who or what people have voted for. You’ll have to wait for Election Day, Saturday 11 October, for that when you will find out along with the rest of us.
