Election 2020: Complaint Filed After Assisted Death Flyers ‘Vote No’ Found in Official EasyVote Packages

Four members of a Northland household opened their official election information packets to find promotional material from a group that opposes the End of Life Election Bill, they told The Spinoff. Alex Braae reports.

EasyVote packets were shipped across the country prior to the general elections and referendums on October 17. But some of the envelopes stamped with the orange man have contained more material than they should have, in the form of a flier urging not to vote in the referendum on the end-of-life election bill, said a family member from Northland to The Spinoff. .

Amber Grant said four of the six adults in her home received in their packages a flyer from VoteSafe, a group that urges the country to vote against the End of Life Choice law. The brochure was inside EasyVote’s sealed packages when they were opened, he said.

Only those in the house who had the surname Grant received the flyers in their packages. The other two did not. It is not yet clear how widespread the apparent error has been.

“Mine was definitely closed and then I opened it in my little house, down from the big house. And it was definitely there,” Grant said, talking about the VoteSafe flyer. “When I went up to the house, my parents had theirs there too. It definitely came from inside my envelope.”

The complete EasyVote package should include only an EasyVote card, candidates for the constituency in which the recipient is located, contact details of the teller and official information about the referendums.

A spokesman for the Electoral Commission confirmed that under no circumstances should this material information from campaign groups be included. He said that the Commission was aware of the complaint and is currently investigating.

“The EasyVote package includes only Election Commission material, and the processes in place to produce and deliver the packages mean that it is highly unlikely that other material will be included. We have begun immediate investigations to get to the bottom of this,” he said. .

The 3.3 million packages were compiled using an automated process at New Zealand Post’s Auckland and Christchurch sites, the spokesperson said. “There is a strong quality assurance process in place and every thousandth package is checked by Election Commission staff … New Zealand Post delivers packages. They have specific instructions for staff, including when packages should be delivered. Staff are advised that Any packages that appear damaged should be returned to the processing center. “

The Commission had not received similar complaints other than a home, he said.

The New Zealand Post has been contacted for comment.

VoteSafe campaign manager Henoch Kloosterboer emphasized that the organization had no role in the apparent mistake. “The first time I heard of flyers that were supposed to be included in the Election Commission’s EasyVote packages was from The Spinoff. I had no prior knowledge and no member of the public had contacted me about this,” he said.

“It seems to me that it is a deliberate attempt to cause confusion on the part of someone who opened these envelopes to put them, or falsely claimed that they were inside the envelopes. Or it could be human error in a large distribution and distribution house, where the brochures they have been incorrectly inserted into the EasyVote packages, “Kloosterboer said.

“It is a serious concern and shows the possibility of things going wrong due to human error. This is also in line with our concerns about the End of Life Choice Act, which has the potential for human error.”

Amber Grant said she had been planning to vote up in the referendum, but the flier gave her pause.

“When I first saw that role, I thought, woah,” he said. “From reading the original [official] pamphlet I thought [the bill] it was okay, specifics about terminal illnesses and stuff, it gave you clear data on who can use that, “he said.

“But when I read that, I thought: it looked so appropriate, it totally looked like the government thing. And then I took it to my sister and she said woah, woah, I don’t think that’s right.”

Under the law, it is possible that the incident could result in a challenge to the referendum result. University of Otago professor of electoral law, Andrew Geddis, said a petition could be filed against the result on the grounds that “irregularities in the conduct of the referendum or anyone related to it materially affected the result.”

However, he cautioned that exceeding the bar would be too high. “Note that the requirement of materially affected. Therefore, you would have to show that enough information packets with the VoteSafe material were sent in them, and that this could also have skewed enough votes to convert a possible” yes “vote. in a “no” vote. “

He said that if it turns out that a large number of EasyVote packages were compromised, the result was close, and therefore the compromised packages could have influenced the result, then the High Court could declare the result null and demand that it be executed. again. .