Monday 12 March 2001 Media Statement

Electoral Amendment Bill introduced to improve election administration

The Associate Minister of Justice Margaret Wilson today introduced a bill to improve and modernise election procedures. The changes are in line with the Government¡¦s commitment to ensure the 2002 general election avoids the problems experienced in 1999

¡§This is an important step towards modernising our electoral machinery,¡¨ Ms Wilson said. ¡§But it is not the final answer and the Government has already set up a taskforce to look at longer term issues about the structure of the electoral agencies and the use of technology.¡¨

The Bill concentrates on proposals that will make immediate improvements to the way elections run on polling day. For example the Bill enables a modern structure to be introduced into the Chief Electoral Office and simplifies the procedures, including vote counting procedures, that the Chief Electoral Officer will have to follow. The Bill also simplifies enrolment by voters by abolishing the complete enrolment required every 3 years. Under the new rules once a voter is enrolled then only changes have to be notified to the Registrar of Electors.

¡§ The new rules on enrolment will be of major benefit to voters.

¡§At the last election over 20 000 voters had their party votes disallowed because they had voted in the wrong electorate. This Bill will allow such votes to count next time."

The Bill includes a separate amendment to allow enrolment information to be used to establish and maintain accurate registers of members of iwi and Maori organisations. If a Maori voter gives consent, the Electoral Enrolment Centre would give updates of contact details for that voter to the organisation that had been approved to run the registration service.

The Bill also incorporates the provisions of the Electoral (Public Opinion Polls) Bill, which was a private member¡¦s Bill from the Rt Hon Winston Peters. The government has agreed to incorporate the provisions into this Bill so that they can be considered by the select committee but has not promised support beyond that point.

The Electoral Amendment Bill is expected to be referred to the Justice and Electoral select committee, for public submissions.

ENDS

Attached: additional information

Additional information: Main points of the Bill

Changes to the administrative machinery run by the Chief Electoral Office

„h A number of changes so that ordinary Maori voting can be made available in all polling places. At the moment, people voting on the Maori roll must often make special tangata whenua votes, because the facilities are not available to make an ordinary vote.
„h Allowing scanning technology to be used for the scrutiny of the rolls process, which is a check for double votes which takes place between election night and the final count of votes.
„h Allowing votes that have been cast before polling day to be counted during the afternoon on polling day, under secure conditions overseen by the Returning Officer for the electorate.
„h Enabling the Chief Electoral Office to establish an effective regional management structure, to support local Returning Officers, and to organise staff and procedures at polling places more efficiently.
„h Simplifying procedures for appointing polling places, issuing writs and declaring results, so that the Chief Electoral Office has centralised responsibility.
„h Providing for the party vote to count, if a person was enrolled but voted in the wrong electorate.

Changes to electoral enrolment procedures run by the Electoral Enrolment Centre

„h Changing the electoral enrolment system so that people do not need to re-enrol every 3 years. Under the continuous enrolment system in the Bill, voters will stay on the electoral roll unless the Electoral Enrolment Centre is notified that they have moved.
„h The continuous enrolment proposal change is supported by data matching powers to let the Electoral Enrolment Centre access information from the Ministry of Transport, Land Transport Safety Authority, Department of Work and Income and the Department of Internal Affairs, to help target their face to face work in enrolment campaigns.
„h Removes the requirement to completely re-enrol when a voter moves to a new electorate.

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