Nominations for former city councillor Clayton Mitchell's seat open today, with the by-election taking place in 12 weeks' time.

The electoral office is urging Mount Maunganui and Papamoa ward residents to take action now to enrol to vote or check that their enrolment details are correct.

The by-election taking place in 12 weeks' time.

The by election takes place on February 17, but voters will only receive their voting papers if the address on the electoral role is correct, says Lesley Christophers, Registrar of Electors for the Bay of Plenty and Tauranga electorates.

'All eligible people will need to enrol or update their enrolment details by December 22, 2014 to vote in the by-election,” says Lesley.

If electors have moved house, or changed their name or other details, the enrolment details will need to be updated.

People enrolled on the General and Māori electoral rolls are eligible to vote in the by-election, which will be held by postal ballot.

'Only those people who are correctly enrolled will receive voting papers in the mail and be able to have a say in the election,” adds Lesley.

'This makes it very important for newly-eligible electors to enrol as soon as possible and for those already enrolled to check that their enrolment details are up to date.”

Enrolment forms are available by calling 0800 36 76 56, by Freetexting your name and address to 3676, from any PostShop or by requesting or downloading one from the elections website: www.elections.org.nz

People can update their details by filling in a new enrolment form, going online to the above address or filling in a change of address form at any PostShop.

Papamoa resident and former Mount Mainstreet manager Leanne Brown announced her intention to stand for Clayton's former ward seat on October 31. Since then there have been no other confirmed candidates.

Leanne, who is marketing manager for the Bethlehem Town Centre, says she announced early because she wants to be fair to her current employer.

'It's also a way of removing speculation. If you know you are going to run you might as well say, otherwise it just makes things more complicated,” says Leanne.

'And there's quite a few that are still undecided but everyone starts to speculate if you don't come out and say it. I thought I would be the first one out of the blocks to announce that's what I would like to do.”

Clayton who was one of two Mount/Papamoa ward councillors, resigned on October 20, the day he was sworn in as a member of parliament.