54,000 People Lost from the Electoral Roll

What would New Zealand be like without Invercargill, or Rotorua, or Whangarei or New Plymouth?

The equivalent of all the people living in one of these places have just been removed from the electoral roll as the enrolment drive for the local council and district health board elections starts to bite.

“54,133 people who were enrolled to vote a month ago aren’t enrolled anymore. We have had to remove them from the electoral roll because they have moved house and not told us,” says Murray Wicks National Manager of the Electoral Enrolment Centre. “This is enough people to populate a place the same size as Rotorua, and more than all the people who live in Invercargill, just wiped from the electoral roll.

“One month into our enrolment drive and there are far too many people who will miss out on receiving their voting papers for the local elections in the mail because they have not updated their enrolment details.

“It’s easily fixed. All these people need to do is enrol to vote today.”

Enrolling is easy.

Enrolment forms are available from the elections website www.elections.org.nz, by free texting your name and address to 3676, from your local PostShop or by calling 0800 ENROL NOW (0800 36 76 56). You can also check your details and enrol online at the website.

The top ten places with the most lost people from the electoral roll are:

Council Number of people removed from the electoral roll since 5 July 2010
1. Auckland 16,373
2. Christchurch City 5,001
3. Wellington City 3,838
4. Hamilton City 2,459
5. Dunedin City 2,096
6. Palmerston North City 1,516
7. Tauranga City 1,404
8. Lower Hutt City 1,285
9. New Plymouth District 1,095
10. Whangarei District 1,023

For a breakdown of the number of people who have been removed from the electoral rolls by council area click here https://www.elections.org.nz/files/5_August_stats.pdf.

ENDS

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