Voters get a tick for attendance

It was one of the best attended elections in years, but the Maori Party protested that ballot papers were missing in some of their key electorates.

Voter turnout figures suggested a turnout in the high 80 per cent range and it was clear that the close race had resulted in a surge of interest, with electoral officials predicting a much higher turnout than there had been for the 2002 election.

But the Maori Party said some polling booths did not have Maori ballot papers when voters turned up yesterday morning. This was denied by the Chief Electoral Office.

Maori Party campaign manager, Gaylene Mepia, said Manukau East's candidate, Mamatere Tahora, turned up to cast her vote at 9am but had to wait till 10.30am as Maori ballot papers were unavailable.

Mepia said Maori voting papers had run out at booths in Whangarei, Dargaville, Kaitaia and Kaikohe. She had also heard of shortages in Levin and Gisborne. "Up north, they had to get a helicopter to pick up some voting papers and bring them back," she said.

Assistant Chief Electoral Officer Robert Peden confirmed that in the Far North eight boxes of ballot papers had to be flown in.

In Horeke, a small settlement at the top of the Hokianga Harbour, two tangi were held yesterday and the small polling booth had not expected so many voters. "It was overrun, so they had to issue photocopied papers," Peden said.

"That's an example of the sort of thing that can happen in a rural electorate.

"But all voters got to vote and that's the main thing."

Auckland political scientist Barry Gustafson said he expected turnout to be well into the 80s, despite the rain in Auckland. "It's been a very exciting election campaign. People get gripped by it and feel strongly about the issues and for that reason more people seem to have voted," he said.

Voter turnout in general elections - the percentage of people on the electoral roll who turn out to vote - has traditionally been high in New Zealand. For a country that has never had compulsory voting (unlike Australia), turnout for many years was rarely below 80 per cent and usually much higher.

In 2002 the electoral system suffered a major shock when turnout fell to about 76 per cent, the lowest since 1893. This was despite some $20 million being spent on voter registration and education.

Between 1935 and 1957 the voter turnout exceeded 90 per cent in all but one election. In 1938 it reached 96 per cent, possibly a world record for a democracy.

In the first MMP election in 1996, turnout was a respectable 88 per cent but fell 3.5 points in 1999. The drop between 1999 and 2002 was the most dramatic since 1943.

Critics of MMP claimed the low turnout in 2002 indicated disillusionment and confusion over MMP - an assertion reflected in the monthly UMR Insight poll. Others said the low turnout reflected confidence in the economy, on the basis that past high turnouts coincided with economic uncertainty or troubles.

Certainly, Labour has reigned over a long period of economic growth that not even its most trenchant critics have denied.

Also, since the economic reforms of the late 1980s and 1990s, the role of the government in stimulating and fostering business confidence and growth has declined.
Voter turnouts in other countries are generally lower than in New Zealand whether under first past the post (such as India, Canada, Britain or the US) or proportional systems (such as Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic, Israel and much of continental Europe).

Does the recent decline mean New Zealand is less democratic? Not necessarily, but serious questions need to be asked of the validity of expensive voter registration campaigns, electoral education and innovations to make voting easier.

In local body elections, where "innovative" postal voting replaced ballot box elections some years ago, turnouts fell and have regularly been below 50 per cent. This suggests that ease of voting and voter response do not necessarily go hand in hand.

- HERALD ON SUNDAY