Postal Voting is Heading for Third World Status.

The present system of postal voting in local elections has been shown to be wide open to attempts at fraud and manipulation.

The investigations in South Auckland and other areas is on-going but it is now manifestly clear how easy it is to manipulate the voting registration process – and then the voting itself.

I have heard stories of people actually stealing voting papers from letterboxes, presumably with the intent of using them to make fraudulent votes.

On the North Shore there are complaints of some form of bribery with potential voters being offered entries into a prize draw.

And there are endless stories of one member of a large household casting the votes for all the household.

Apart from those irregularities many eligible electors simply lose their voting papers and can’t be bothered with the perceived hassle of applying for replacement papers.

And in Auckland, and possibly elsewhere, there is the confusing use of two different types of voting both on the same voting paper – first past the post for Mayor, Auckland Council and Local Boards, and the STV system of numbering for the District Health Boards.

I have had many calls on this confusion which I am sure will lead to lower voting turnout and/or invalid votes.
It is time for a clean-up of our local election system – preferably a return to a single ‘election day’ process in the same way we elect our Parliament.
The present system is rapidly deteriorating to a level expected in the third world.

[David Thornton is a candidate for the Kaipatiki Local Board]

ENDS

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