Outgoing Deputy Mayor Josh Wharehinga says he is incredulous he has had to re-enrol multiple times fur both local body and central government elections. The system shouldn't be so poor, he said.
Outgoing Deputy Mayor Josh Wharehinga says he is incredulous he has had to re-enrol multiple times fur both local body and central government elections. The system shouldn't be so poor, he said.
Deputy Mayor Josh Wharehinga is frustrated by electoral roll “anomalies”, but the Electoral Commission says there have been no technical issues in regard to registering on the Māori roll.
Registrations are now closed, meaning those voters not yet enrolled in either the Māori ward or general ward will have tocast a special vote and can enrol to cast such a vote up to October 10 – the day before local body election day.
Wharehinga, a councillor since a 2014 byelection who is not seeking re-election, told the Gisborne Herald he had not been able to find himself on the roll in consecutive local body elections.
Labour MPs Cushla Tangaere-Manuel, Jo Luxton and Camilia Belich said they were aware of registration “anomalies” in the run-up to this year’s local body elections.
Wharehinga said he also had to cast special votes in general elections.
He had only changed his address once between elections.
“I am a very politically engaged person,” he said.
“I take voting very seriously. So I am incredulous that this has happened to me multiple times.
“How can an electoral system meet the needs of all people when even I, someone who is so politically engaged, have had to re-enrol multiple times and make special votes?
“Whether this is because I am Māori, or maybe the system is fundamentally flawed, I really don’t know.
“What I do know, is a system that is so integral for our national, regional and local representation shouldn’t be so poor.”
Tangaere-Manuel said there appeared to be a problem with people who were transient.
She was even aware of a Gisborne District Council candidate who was frustrated to find out she was not enrolled, and had to register to cast a special vote.
But there was time to fix the system before next year’s general election, she said.
Gisborne District Council voting papers must be received by noon on election day, October 11. Late ballot papers will not be counted.
Electoral Commission chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne told the Gisborne Herald the commission took such concerns seriously.
“We heard that people sometimes had trouble finding their record when they checked their enrolment details online.
The most common issue was when addresses were typed in manually or when autofill was used.
“If there’s a small difference between the information we have on file and the information you’ve entered, the search might not find you.”
Other reasons people may not be enrolled include that they may be on the unpublished roll, or their enrolment application was still being processed.
Some of those people could also be on the “dormant” roll.
If we lose touch with a voter, for example, if we get returned mail from an old address, we will try to contact the person by text or email,“Le Quesne said.
“Since the last election, we have sent 139,036 emails and 152,794 texts to people whose details were out of date.
“Under the Electoral Act, if we can’t contact the person, they must be moved from the main roll to the dormant roll until they update their address with us.”
Since April 1, nearly 345,000 people had enrolled or updated their details, including more than 59,000 voters of Māori descent (on both the general and Māori rolls), with 63.5% of these transactions being online.
Voting papers were sent out on September 9.
Voters who had not received their voting papers – for both electing Gisborne District Council and the binding referendum on whether to retain the Māori ward – should contact Gisborne District Council electoral officer Dale Ofsoske at specialvotes@electionservices.co.nz.
Those who apply to cast a special vote will not receive their voting papers in the mail.
Special votes can be cast at the council or at other locations listed on the council’s website.
The election is held by postal vote, which means voting papers must be received by noon on October 11.
Voting papers can also be dropped off at 14 orange ballot boxes at Gisborne District Council, Paper Plus, The Warehouse and other locations in Elgin, Kaiti, on the East Coast and in rural western locations.
See the council website for more locations.
Votes received after noon on election day, October 11, will not be counted.
