There are just days left to enrol to vote (enrolments close at midnight on Sunday, October 25) and the Electoral Commission is sending teams out to shopping malls, markets, libraries railway stations - even hospitals - to try and enrol the 350,000 New Zealanders yet to sign up.
As of Thursday, 91.2% of eligible voters were enrolled. But young people were significantly lagging behind with just 65.5% of 18- to 24-year-olds signed up to have their say.
RNZ joined one of the commission's teams at Auckland's Sylvia Park and did a walk around with staffer Yebin Hong.
We didn't have much luck finding anyone who wasn't enrolled until we came across several groups of young men hanging out near the glitzy sneaker shops.
They fobbed us off until we met AJ, who said he would enrol but was only 17. Yebin helpfully informed him he can still sign up to the provisional role, at which point his plot was foiled.
"I was joking, I'm 20," he admitted.
Of the dozens of people that we asked, it was only the young men we spoke to who weren't enrolled.
We caught 23-year-old Karim, who was out buying a new pair of shoes for a job interview. Although eligible, he didn't vote in the last general election.
He reckons young people sometimes don't vote because they're disillusioned with politics, or aren't engaged with the process.
He said he could still be persuaded about who to vote for.
"I haven't fully decided yet but I have my preferences," he said.
At the mall's Electoral Commission registration hub, community engagement advisor Hannah Edwards says they're still enrolling about 60 people a day.
In her role, she sometimes meets people who are very disengaged from the political process.
"The key message is just, 'think about things that matter to you'," she said.
As those well as enrolling to vote, some shoppers, like Anna, are double checking their details are up-to-date at the mall's election hub.
"I'm trans so it's kind of important for me to vote because there have been recent bills that have been threatening my existence, basically. So it's important for me to vote."
Chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne says they're pulling out all the stops to get as many people enrolled as possible, with a keen focus on young people.
"We're just asking for everyone who has anything to do with young people - parents, uncles, aunties, teachers, grandparents - check in with young people, check if they're enrolled and if they're not, tell them how easy it is to do it."
He says the commission is doing everything it can to get the message to people that they need to be enrolled to vote by midnight on Sunday, October 25.
They've sent out millions of letters and e-mails, as well as provided a lot of resources to people in the community to get the message out.
The commission has a target of getting of getting to 94.7% enrolment - the number that was achieved during 2023 election.
"There's a a bit of a way to go but but we're not slowing down at all we're increasing our efforts on this," says Le Quesne.
