Hon Louise Upston

Associate Minister of Local Government
19 April 2016 Media Statement

Further work before online voting proceeds

Associate Local Government Minister Louise Upston has announced that the online voting trial proposed for this year’s local body elections will not proceed as more work is required to ensure a trial meets public and government expectations.

“Public confidence in local elections is fundamentally important. Given real concerns about security and vote integrity, it is too early for a trial,” says Ms Upston.

“Due to timing restrictions, preparations for the proposed trial have not yet met the legislative requirements and cannot guarantee public confidence in the election results.

“Security testing has been planned but has not yet occurred. Without seeing the results of testing we cannot be confident the systems are secure enough, and the trial could not be authorised.”

“We acknowledge the work done by councils and service providers on their proposals and we understand their disappointment that the trials cannot go ahead this year as originally hoped.”

“There are significant timeframe pressures in preparing for a trial in this year’s local elections and these issues and pressures exacerbate the risks inherent in a trial.”

“Voting is a fundamental right of New Zealand citizens and public trust in electoral systems and results is paramount. Maintaining public confidence and understanding of local electoral processes is more important than trialling online voting this year.”

Ms Upston says online voting could be trialled at future elections but there is still much to learn about online voting, and issues with online voting overseas have stressed the importance of getting it right and maintaining public confidence.

“The Government is open to looking at proposals for future trials of online voting in local elections but any plans for trials should be developed as part of a programme of gradual steps towards online voting in local elections.”

Eight councils had expressed interest in trialling online voting at the 2016 local elections: Selwyn, Wellington, Porirua, Masterton, Rotorua, Matamata-Piako, Palmerston North and Whanganui.

ONLINE_VOTING_QA.pdf

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