Wellington North council is still analysing the success of last month's Ward 3 by-election.
Voter turn out was 48 per cent, using a mail-in vote. That is up by about ten percent from the 2014 municipal election when paper ballots were used.
Municipal Clerk Karren Wallace says it is impossible to know whether the large voter response was due to the mail-in ballot or the interest in the by-election because of the eight candidates running.
Wallace says the by-election was a small trial that may be expanded during the next municipal election in 2018.
Newly-elected Councillor Lisa Hern said she met one elderly voter who felt she maintained her sense of "dignity" by being able to vote from home, since she was not able to get out to a regular polling station.
