The countdown is on for our local elections and judging by early voting trends, the Ashburton District is on track for another good voter turnout.

At 4.30pm on Tuesday, the district was showing 18.45 per cent of eligible voters had returned their papers by post, slightly less that in 2019 when the eventual turnout was 55.4 per cent – that compared to a national turnout of 42 per cent that year.

It is good to see people are keen to have a say in electing those to represent their voice in decisions for our community.

Councils and community boards have a critical role to play in supporting the resilience, lifestyle and prosperity of our district, so get out there and vote, pack and post.

Daily voting returns are being advised by Electionz.com and these are votes that have been returned by post for processing in Christchurch. If you intend to vote by post you need to do so no later than Tuesday 4 October - that leaves time for the orange envelopes to be collected from postboxes and sent to the processing centre.

You can also hand deliver your voting papers to Council by the deadline of noon on Saturday 8 October.

We have special orange ballot bins at the Ashburton Public Library, Council’s offices on Baring Square West and the Mt Hutt Memorial Hall in Methven, and all three facilities will be open on the last day of voting, up to the noon deadline.

If you haven’t yet received your papers, you may be able to cast a special vote at Council’s Ashburton offices – the details are all on Council’s voteashburton.nz website, along with information about the candidates.

Another important process that is connected to the local elections is the formation of our 12 local reserve and hall boards, and you can expect to hear more from Council about this soon.

We are one of a few councils that operates these boards, and while they don’t have the same profile as a Council or community board, they are hugely important to our green spaces and community halls in local communities.

The 12 boards we have are made up of volunteers with a passion for helping their communities, and they run local domains and reserves, and local halls, and they play a major role connecting with Council to keep those facilities going.

The boards are disbanded before local elections every three years, then members are re-elected for another three-year cycle once the new Council has been sworn in.

So keep an eye out for boards when they advertise their triennial election meetings and consider what you could do to help.