October 2025 progress update

Work continues to improve the integrity measures in place for the next general election following the 2024 report of the Office of the Auditor-General.

Funding in Budget 2025 of $18.7m over four years supports the work to implement the Auditor-General’s recommendations and strengthen the integrity of election processes.

Initiatives include improving post-election checks, reviewing and upgrading instruction manuals, additional training for the post-election period, and providing more laptops and phones for election staff. 

There is also additional funding of $61.9m over four years to manage cost increases in election delivery, and to support the start of a modernisation programme which includes moving towards automatic enrolment updates and digital communications with voters over time.

Board advisors

The Electoral Commission Board has appointed three advisors to assist the Board as it oversees the modernisation of election delivery. The advisors will also assist the Board to ensure effective quality assurance controls are in place for the 2026 General Election.

Our leadership

Progress update on the Auditor-General’s report

Auditor-General’s recommendations Progress update October 2025
Review all vote counting and quality assurance checks and controls to address gaps and vulnerabilities. An audit of post-election and enrolment processes has been completed by PwC. The findings are being used to improve controls over post-election and enrolment processes.
Review and update standard operations manuals and instructions, to improve the clarity of information about quality control activities and why they are important and to clarify accountability and responsibility for carrying them out. We have reviewed our operations manuals and developed a new format that is easier to understand. The manuals for the 2026 General Election will have improved access to key information and highlight controls and key steps.
Complete the end-to-end description of the election process and inter-dependencies of activities, and identify controls that support the election process. Enrolment and post-election critical controls and dependencies are being assessed, improved and documented.
Review the personnel requirements for elections, the process for recruiting and training election workers, and planning for contingencies (such as staff unavailability, system outages, and fatigue). Improvements are being made to the online recruitment platform to make it simpler, faster, and more effective to recruit staff.
Training material is being updated.
Personnel requirements are being reviewed as plans are finalised for the 2026 election, including planning to cover contingencies and fatigue in key roles.
Review hardware requirements, to ensure that electorates have sufficient technology to complete tasks required of them. Technology requirements have been reviewed for all election delivery roles. Procurement is underway for devices to support delivery.
Review the information technology systems that support the election process to ensure that they remain fit for purpose for both electorate and National Office functions. Technology systems have been reviewed to ensure they will support delivery of the 2026 General Election. As well as regular maintenance, plans are in place for improvements to core systems including the Commission’s financial management system, internal intranet, access to online training, and testing of applications used in voting places.
Enhance risk identification processes and continue to apply programme and project management disciplines (including managing risks) throughout the election period. A new assurance framework was adopted in July 2024. An updated risk policy has been approved by the Board.
Additional fixed term roles have been identified to enhance capability in this area. 

Post-election and enrolment audit

Part of the Electoral Commission Board’s response to the Auditor-General’s report was to commission an independent report on enrolment and post-election processes from PwC.

The report provides a comprehensive assessment of controls and operational risks.

Improvements are being made as delivery plans are developed for the 2026 General Election. These are detailed in full in the Electoral Commission’s response to the report. The table below provides a summary.

PwC review of post-election and enrolment processes (download) [PDF, 6.7MB]

Electoral Commission’s response to the PwC report (download) [PDF, 266KB]

Key recommendations Progress update October 2025
Enable step change that fundamentally changes the volume and flow of enrolment activity across the electoral cycle, so the roll is more consistently accurate and complete, and less change is required during the election period.

- Take steps to enable rolls to remain up to date during the electoral cycle

- As far as possible and feasible, take action to identify and reach unenrolled people, and electors whose information is not up to date

- Make it easy and transactionally simple for eligible voters to keep electoral information up to date and ensure the systems used to hold and support enrolment data enable these actions
We are planning for increased use of digital channels to contact voters about their enrolment.

Legislative change is proposed that, if passed, will enable automatic enrolment updates for voters in the future.

These changes will help shift complex transactions out of the election period and improve the accuracy and completeness of the electoral rolls over the election cycle.
Enable step change that fundamentally changes how the Commission uses technology to prevent errors from occurring and better detect whether errors have occurred by moving away from manual processes and controls A business case to explore options for future technology has been funded.
Recommendations on governance, risk and controls

Process maps for enrolment through to the return of results are largely complete.

Additional controls are being designed and tested for the 2026 General Election. ‘Controls’ are quality assurance checks at key stages of the election process.

An Enterprise Risk framework and policy was approved by the Board in April 2025 to support risk management.  
Recommendations on enrolment processes and quality assurance   A new quality and integrity workplan ensures adequate oversight of controls.

System changes are being made to improve the key check on enrolment processing for the most complex enrolment transactions, including the criteria for when the check is required.

Planning is underway to improve staff training for complex enrolment cases during the election period.   
Recommendations on electoral results processes during the post-election period Systems changes and documentation improvements underway for monitoring the completion and accuracy of critical activities during the post-election period include:

- improved controls in the Election Management System to detect potential errors

- improved checks on data entry.

Changes tested during the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election include additional data entry checks and improved monitoring of post-election tasks.  

Page updates

This page was last updated on 22 October 2025

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