Election 2020: Misinformation and complacency? Poor voter turnout for Waiariki

Tamati Coffey, left, and Rawiri Waititi. Photo / File

Misinformation and complacency about how the election would turn out may account for poor voter turnout in the Waiariki and East Coast electorates, Labour Waiariki Electorate Committee chairperson Mawera Karetai says.

Preliminary election results show only 71 per cent of East Coast and 54 per cent of Waiariki enrolled voters turned out to vote. The nationwide average was 82.5 per cent.

This election, Karetai said she witnessed a lot of misinformation "bandied about" on social media and believed this may have put people off voting.

"Some people don't have the reasonable research skills to be able to easily identify fact from fiction, and this may have put people off," she said.

"People don't know how to engage, and they didn't feel safe to engage."

Voter complacency may also have played a part.

She believes many voters thought it was obvious Labour was going to make it in and therefore didn't bother to cast their own vote.

If this theory is correct, voter complacency may have played a large part in the current tussle for the Waiariki electorate seat. Only 415 votes separate the Māori Party's Rawiri Waititi from Labour's Tamati Coffey, with special votes still to be counted.

Last election, Coffey just grasped the Waiariki seat through special votes and pushed incumbent Māori Party MP Te Ururoa Flavell out of Parliament.

Waititi is the Māori Party's only chance at a seat in Parliament.

Some have suggested Māori electorate turnout is so low because Māori do not believe in the Westernised democracy system, but Karetai does not buy into that explanation.

"There's always a small portion of people who say that, but the truth is we've been living in a colonised society for over 200 years," she said.

"We know how it works and while we may not like it, we've learnt to live within it. I think that's a bit of a cop-out actually."

Karetai said all candidates in the Waiariki electorate worked really hard to ensure all voters knew who they were and what they stood for, so she didn't believe they could have done more to engage voters.

She said during last year's local elections, Whakatāne District Council candidate Toni Boynton did a lot of work ensuring Māori were on the electoral roll.

"No one has dropped the ball here," Karetai said.

"A lot has been done to make the process incredibly easy, bar online voting. I think the Electoral Commission did a really great job ensuring there were a lot of voting booths across the district and this year people were even able to register to vote on the day.

"I really commend them for a job well done."