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Council to support voter turnout investigation
Friday 15 October
2013
Council to support voter
turnout investigation
At its inaugural
meeting last night (Thursday 24 October), the Christchurch
City Council resolved to form a working party in response to
the low voter turnout in the 2013 Christchurch local body
elections.
This work will inform the Council’s response to the Government’s review of New Zealand’s 2013 local body elections.
The newly-elected Council has received a report on the outcome of the 2013 elections, including enrolment numbers, voting statistics and voter turnout.
The proposed working party – consisting of Councillors Yani Johanson (chair), Phil Clearwater, Pauline Cotter, Jamie Gough and Ali Jones – will discuss what response the Council would like to make to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee and consider its support for any initiatives that might encourage greater voter participation.
Working party chair Councillor Yani Johanson says, “The Council is concerned at the lack of voter participation in local body elections with more than 57 per cent of eligible voters not voting.
“The working party has been established to see what more the Council can do to promote turnout and ensure that it is as easy as possible for people to participate. It is envisaged that this work will inform the Council’s submission to the Government’s review.
“There is a wide range of measures that could help. These include electronic voting, simplified special voting, more promotion of voting period, and civics education.”
Some of these measures will require legislative change.
The Government regularly calls a review after every local body elections. This latest review comes in the wake of a lower-than-hoped-for voter turnout across the country and calls from some quarters for online voting.
Christchurch’s elections saw 42.72 per cent of all eligible voters cast their vote, compared to other metropolitan centres such as Auckland (34.33 per cent), Wellington (41.33 per cent), Hamilton (38.33 per cent) and Dunedin (43.10 per cent).
ENDS
The report to Council can be viewed here: http://resources.ccc.govt.nz/files/TheCouncil/meetingsminutes/agendas/2013/October/Council24October2013Agenda.pdf
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