6 August 2004

Enrol to vote in the local authority elections this year

Residents and ratepayers will have an opportunity to have their say about who they want running their city councils, district health boards and licensing trusts at the local authority elections that will take place across New Zealand on 9 October this year.

To be eligible to vote people must:

-be 18 years of age or older, and be
- a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident and
- must have lived in New Zealand continuously for one year or more at some stage and
- be enrolled on the electoral roll.

Most people will have received their enrolment packs from the Electoral Enrolment Centre in the mail over the last few weeks. These need to be checked and posted back only if details need to be changed.

If people did not receive enrolment papers they can check whether they are enrolled and that their details (address details, etc) are correct by calling 0800 ENROL NOW
(0800 367 6 56) or by visiting the Electoral Enrolment Centre website: www.elections.org.nz

The electoral roll is published on 20 August. If details are not on the roll by this day, people can enrol at a PostShop and will also need to contact their local authority’s electoral officer for special voting documents. It’s much easier to check you are enrolled now!

All eligible voters whose names appear on the parliamentary (national) electoral rolls are automatically enrolled on the local body residential electoral roll at the address where they live.

If a person is on the parliamentary roll for one area and pays rates on a property in another area, they may be eligible to vote in the local elections where they own the property on the non-resident ratepayer roll.

For example, a firm, company, corporation or society paying rates on a property, may nominate one of its members or officers as a ratepayer elector (providing the nominated person resides outside of the area).

Ratepayer roll enrolment forms are available at council offices. For more information on the ratepayer roll, people should contact their local council.

ENDS

© Scoop Media