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This story was originally posted on RNZ.co.nz and is being republished with permission.
The Electoral Commission has come under fire after a series of errors in the first week of early voting.
In one electorate, the white circle where voters marked their preferred party was missing and at an Auckland polling station staff could not find the Maori list.
Grant Matthews / Stuff
The Electoral Commission has come under fire after a series of errors in the first week of early voting.
Early voting numbers skyrocketed compared to previous years.
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More than 370,000 people cast their vote in the first four days of early voting, almost 150,000 more than in the same period in the last elections.
But in catering to the streams of people who want to have their say before Election Day, mistakes have been made.
Wellington’s attorney, Graeme Edgeler, thought the most serious of these was the missing box next to the Vision New Zealand party, but said it was unlikely to have an impact.
“It’s the kind of thing that if this was Election Day, and this happened suddenly, it could be a problem.
“In fact, it’s probably helpful that it happened during the advanced voting period because it can be picked up long before the vast majority of the people vote, so hopefully it won’t make enough of a difference to make a difference.”
Edgeler said that as long as the voter has made their intention known, their vote will be counted to Vision NZ, regardless of the missing box.
But that did not offer any comfort to the party’s leader, Hannah Tamaki, who said it was sabotage.
“Don’t they say that every vote counts?
“What if I have 1000 votes against the party vote to reach a threshold?
“Where will we know the variations? How will we know that he couldn’t have got them?
“So for me, every vote counts. Every opportunity for a person to vote is important to them. It is their democratic right,” Tamaki said.
The next in a series of mistakes was that the anti-euthanasia pamphlets got into the Election Commission voting packages.
Wellington’s Viraj Thompson said he was shocked and offended to find the VoteSafe brochure inside its official envelope.
“I remember being quite shocked by that.
“I feel like, you know, someone who might have had one of these and personally felt, you know, a deeper sensitivity to the subject that I would have been quite outraged.
“I mean, it felt pretty strange seeing him there,” he said.
It is not yet clear how that error occurred or how widespread the problem is.
There have also been reports that the ballots are running out and there are no Maori lists in some booths.
RNZ has also been notified of cases where a kaumātua was rejected due to confusion over his address and refused to vote for a young man because he was not registered.
But the Elections Commission’s manager of voting services, Graeme Astle, said they were isolated incidents.
“No voter should be turned down.
“Anyone who is not on the list can fill out a registration form at the polling place and then complete the vote in the normal way.
“So we shouldn’t turn anyone away,” Astel said.
Edgeler also wanted to remind people that in New Zealand you do not need identification or proof of address to vote.
“Particularly if people are watching the news or something like that, they are watching news about various states in the United States, they may get the impression that this is what happens in New Zealand.
“It’s not what happens in New Zealand, you don’t need proof of address, you don’t need identification,” he said.
Edgeler said the Elections Commission did a lot of work to show that people were eligible to vote, and all voters had to do was show up.
This story was originally posted on RNZ.co.nz and is being republished with permission.
