Associate Minister of local government Louise Upston has pulled the pin on online voting at this year's local body elections.

Wellington's deputy mayor says the government's axing of a proposed online voting trial for local body elections is a "lost opportunity".

Justin Lester said Wellington City Council had put a lot of work into the proposal and the outcome was "disappointing".

The proposed trial for local body elections later this year has been canned amid "real concerns about security and vote integrity".

Associate Minister of local government Louise Upston said more work needed to happen to "ensure a trial meets public and government expectations".

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"Due to timing restrictions, preparations for the proposed trial have not yet met the legislative requirements and cannot guarantee public confidence in the election results.

"Security testing has been planned but has not yet occurred. Without seeing the results of testing we cannot be confident the systems are secure enough, and the trial could not be authorised," she said.

Some councils and service providers have already done work ahead of the proposed trial and Upston said she understood their "disappointment that the trials cannot go ahead this year as originally hoped".

"Voting is a fundamental right of New Zealand citizens and public trust in electoral systems and results is paramount. Maintaining public confidence and understanding of local electoral processes is more important than trialling online voting this year."

But Lester said getting the trial over the line would got a long way to "increasing voter turnout" at elections in October.

While he could appreciate the system needed to be "hack-proof", Lester said it was vital the government continued efforts to make online voting available at both local and national level as soon as possible.

Labour backed up Lester's concerns saying it was a "kick in the guts" for councils who had done the ground work for the trial.

"This is a lost opportunity to address declining voter participation and the councils involved in the trial felt they had done everything possible to meet the requirements for it to go ahead," Labour's local government spokeswoman Meka Whaitiri said.

"Make no mistake, if National were genuinely motivated to get this trial off the ground, it would have gone ahead."

But there was still lots for the government to learn about online voting and Upston said issues with it overseas prompted the brakes going on the proposal.

"There are significant timeframe pressures in preparing for a trial in this year's local elections and these issues and pressures exacerbate the risks inherent in a trial."

The government was open to looking at proposals in the future "as part of a programme of gradual steps towards online voting in local elections," she said.

Eight councils had expressed interest in the trial this year, which were Selwyn, Wellington, Porirua, Masterton, Rotorua, Matamata-Piako, Palmerston North and Whanganui.