We're being urged not to be passive bystanders in the upcoming local body elections.

The vote takes place via postal ballot from the 20th of September until the 12th of October.

However, just 38.5 percent of residents in our biggest city had their say in 2016.

Actor, writer and comedian Oscar Kightley is working with Auckland Council, using his profile to encourage people to have their say.

He told the Weekend Collective local bodies impact our every day life, yet so very few people are having their say.

"If you look at how many people care about things on social media, you would think it would be easy to transfer that effort into doing something real."

Kightley had a few suggestions on how more people 

"I think we could lower the age to 16. I think we could invest the millions in looking at doing it online I think we could look at bringing back the ballot box on the day so its not just people posting in their votes."

One report from the week says that there are more councillors in New Zealand named John then there are councillors born after 1980. It also shows that most councillors are male, white and aged between 50-70.

Kightley says that it shows more people from diverse backgrounds need to get out to get representation that matters to them.