One Month to Go in Māori Electoral Option

With one month of the Māori Electoral Option to go, more than 62,000 people have taken part by getting on the roll, changing their roll type, or updating their details.

“Our teams have been out around New Zealand since February, working to raise awareness of the Option and the need to be enrolled,” says Murray Wicks, the Electoral Commission’s National Manager of Enrolment Services. “This has meant more than twice as many new enrolments in the lead-up to the Option period than at the last Option in 2006.”

“We’ve worked with Maori organisations across the country to deliver this important message, and they’ve reached over 120,000 people so far,” says Mr Wicks. “We’ll have people in communities throughout New Zealand right up until the end of the Option on July 24. If you’re not yet sure what it’s all about, visit elections.org.nz or call 0800 36 76 56 to find out more. You’ll be able to find out who is working in your area, as well.”

The Commission’s role is to raise awareness amongst Māori that they have the choice of roll type, and to make it easy to change rolls if they wish. It is not the Commission’s role to advocate for one roll type over another.

“For those who are Māori and on the electoral roll, this is the only opportunity to make the choice of which type of electoral roll you want to vote on – the Māori roll or the General roll,” says Mr Wicks. “If you want to make a change, do it now – you only have until Wednesday 24 July.”

Results of the Option are being collated each month, and cumulative statistics released. With one month to go, the statistics to 24 June are below.

Cumulative statistics
from 25 March Changes to Electoral Roll Type New Enrolments of Māori Descent Impact on Rolls To Date
Māori Roll to General Roll (A) General Roll to Māori Roll (B) General Roll (C) Māori Roll (D) Net Impact on Māori Roll
+/(-)
(E) Net Impact on General Roll +/(-)
(F)
to 25 April 2013 5,435 5,313 625 1,702 1,580 747
to 24 May 2013 6,727 6,774 1,473 3,357 3,404 1,426
to 24 June 2013 7,327 7,727 2,044 4,798 5,198 1,644
Column E = B-A+D
Column F = A-B+C

More information about the Māori Electoral Option is available at www.elections.org.nz/events/meo-2013 .

ENDS

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