Residents added to electoral roll
The Electoral Commission has added approximately 6,300 people to the electoral roll after identifying an issue with how enrolment eligibility is processed.
“Last week we established that some people with residence class visas who had applied to enrol had been asked to provide information on their immigration status when they didn’t need to. Our system should have flagged that they were eligible to enrol,” says Karl Le Quesne, Chief Electoral Officer.
“Our teams worked quickly to identify people who had submitted valid applications to enrol and were asked for more information in error. As a result, approximately 6,300 people have been contacted by email or phone to notify them that they are enrolled and can vote in the election.”
People who were notified by email will also receive a follow-up text. The emails are being sent from help@enquiries.vote.nz, the text messages from 5101, and phone calls from 0800 434 637.
“We are also sending all of those affected a letter in the post confirming their enrolment. We are sorry that this breakdown in our processes was a barrier to enrolling for this group.”
Investigations have also identified approximately 1,200 people who were added to the electoral roll when they should not have been. They are people who were on a temporary entry class visa, such as a work visa, or their visa had expired.
Their applications should have been flagged as ineligible due to their visa status.
They will be removed from the roll before the official count and notified in writing. If they have already voted in the election, their vote will be disallowed.
“We continue to work on this matter with urgency to notify those affected, to undertake quality assurance, and action the changes. This may mean small changes in the numbers. Our priority is to communicate with those affected and fix this problem so that it does not happen again,” says Karl Le Quesne.
“We have strengthened our integrity checks since the last election and it is disappointing that this has occurred, but people can still have confidence in the overall quality of the electoral roll for this election.”