The overall turnout of 74.2% among those registered to vote at last election was the lowest in 124 years and young people were overrepresented among non-voters.
A Statistics New Zealand survey released this year found 41.8% of young people did not vote at the last election, in 2011, compared with 5.2% of people aged 65 and over.
The turnout in the Dunedin North electorate, where most of Dunedin's students live, dropped from 81.57% at the 2008 election to 75.06%.
University of Otago politics lecturer Dr Bryce Edwards said parties had taken note of the trends and redoubled their efforts to bring in the youth vote.
''There's been more focus on the youth vote in this election campaign than probably any other in living memory,'' Dr Edwards said.
''There's a sense in which parties probably think that there's some easy votes to be won amongst youth, if only these voters had some attention paid to them.''
So far, extra efforts involved taking election campaigning to where they thought young voters were, which meant turning up on campus more frequently and using digital technology.
''Therefore, parties and candidates are making greater efforts to participate in social media, especially Facebook and Twitter.''
The one party truly breaking the mould was the Internet Party, which was pushing a policy of free tertiary education and had one of its ''Party Parties'' in Dunedin.
''One of the most vivid campaign controversies has resulted out of this electioneering, the so-called `f... John Key' video, which was widely condemned, but possibly appealed to a large section of youth.''
However, it would be unwise for other parties to replicate the Internet Party's efforts because of the risk other demographics would be turned off.
''The Internet Party can push the boundaries more than more mainstream parties can afford to do, because they are really only after a small niche of the voting public to be won over.''
Dunedin North Labour MP David Clark said he was using social media more than before and believed it was working.
''I recently published a picture of students eating ice cream outside the Rob Roy Dairy and that was one of my most viewed posts ever,'' Dr Clark said.
Having his electorate office close to the campus and offering his services outside election year was also a key part of his strategy to win over the student vote.
Another was going to events on campus, which included Labour leader David Cunliffe making policy announcements on campus during his last visit.
Much like Dr Edwards, he believed a focus on ''baby-boomers'' by both political parties and the media had caused a ''sense of disaffection'' among the youth voters.
Dunedin North candidate and National list MP Michael Woodhouse said his efforts to win the student vote involved using social media and taking advantage of the Young Nats, which he believed was the ''largest and most visible'' young political party on campus.
Otago University is traditionally seen as a left-leaning campus, but Mr Woodhouse said the campus was ''bluer'' than ever before.
''I don't think it's nearly as left as people give it credit for,'' Mr Woodhouse said.
This was partly because many of the student votes for National were cast in other electorates. Many students were registered to vote in their home electorates.
Internet Party campaign manager for Dunedin Alax Robinson said it was using social media more than any other party and the Kim Dotcom factor helped pique interest among students.
''Kim Dotcom's incredibly popular. He seems to be a great crowd pleaser. Everybody wants to get a selfie with him,'' Mr Robinson said.
This could be seen at the Dunedin ''Party Party'' where it had to be cautious about letting Mr Dotcom roam free for risk he would be ''mobbed by all the young people wanting selfies''.
''We certainly don't mind pushing the boundaries a little bit, as long as we are not breaking any rules,'' he said.
The Otago University Students' Association (OUSA) is running a $28,000 non-partisan campaign to encourage students to vote.
President Ruby Sycamore-Smith said she hoped OUSA could help ''empower'' students to have a say.
OUSA's initiatives included holding free gigs for people enrolled to vote, debates and setting up the studentvote.co.nz website.
Despite all the effort, Dr Edwards believed the youth demographic would still be over-represented in non-voting.
Much of the extra effort by political parties was ''window-dressing'' and most of them were still largely oriented towards the 50-plus age group.
''It's potentially an ever-decreasing circle, whereby politicians are less responsive to youth voters because they don't vote and youth voters aren't responsive to parties because they are not targeting the youth.''
