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Government considers removing election day voter enrolment
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A report by the auditor-general found an unprecedented number of
special votes were cast in last year's general election. Photo: RNZ /
Nick Monro
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says very few countries allow voters
to enrol on election day, and New Zealand should consider changing the
rules.
A report by the auditor-general released on Tuesday found an
unprecedented number of special votes were cast in last year's general
election, leading to rushed final checks and mistakes.
"It's really difficult to forecast how many special votes we would
get," chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne told _Morning Report_ on
Wednesday.
"Normally, we'd look back at what the trend was in past elections, but
2020 was a really unusual election with the change in date. We had a
lot more time to enrol people when the election date was shifted out.
"We did forecast there would be more special votes and enrolments
during voting, but it turned out to be much higher than what we
forecast."
The 2020 election was delayed from September to October due to an
outbreak of Covid-19 in Auckland.
That same year, the rules were changed to allow people to enrol to
vote as late as election day, then-justice minister Andrew Little
saying about 19,000 voters were "disenfranchised" in 2017 due to their
details not being up to date.
"Special votes in enrolments or enrolment updates while voting can
take up to 10 times longer to process, and that's what put us under so
much pressure during the official count," Le Quesne said.
None of the mistakes, once fixed, had any effect on the outcome in any
electorate or the overall result.
Le Quesne said it was "a matter for Parliament to consider and decide"
whether same-day enrolments should be canned, but it would make the
Electoral Commission's job easier without having to hire "a few
hundred more people".
Paul Goldsmith, the current justice minister, was keeping an open
mind.
"There's some basic, basic stuff that the auditor-general pointed out,
so we're obviously concerned about that, and I will be making my
expectations absolutely clear to the Electoral Commission around
performance. So that's absolutely the case," he told _Morning Report_.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
"The broader question though is whether the design of the system,
particularly with the same-day enrolments - enrolments on election
day, which is … a new idea - is adding much more pressure to the
system.
"And remember that they used to be out of count everything in two
weeks. This time, they were in a mad rush to count it in three weeks.
We were waiting and waiting and waiting and still mistakes were made.
And so that's the issue."
Goldsmith said it already cost $227 million to run an election.
"Rather than, you know, just throw even more hundreds of millions at
the problem, wouldn't it be more sensible to ask, have we
overcomplicated? Have we made it too, too complicated? Can we simplify
it in some way?"
Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should
make sure the system ran smoothly and "taking away the right of
thousands of people to vote" was not the answer.
"Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If they're saying
they'll stop that happening they're basically saying that thousands of
people won't have their vote counted.
He said the commission was given extra funding for 2023 but it was not
at the same level as they were given in 2020 to run an election in the
midst of a global pandemic.
Special votes typically favour Labour and the Greens, who commonly
pick up seats in the final results compared to what was counted on the
night, at the expense of National.
For example, in 2023 the Greens picked up one extra seat and Te Pāti
Māori two, while National lost two. In 2020, Labour and Te Pāti Māori
each picked up an extra seat, while National lost two.
Goldsmith said he would wait for the Electoral Commission's own report
and send it to select committee before the government made any
decisions. He said the Labour-led government "didn't try to be very
bipartisan" when it made changes to voting enrolment.
"Look, we'll work our way through it. What happens is I get the formal
report, then it goes off to a select committee and then the government
makes decisions about whether it's going to make any changes or not.
And so there'll be plenty of opportunity for people to have their
say."
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