Legal Beagle: Election Fact Check #3: It shouldn't be this way
56 Responses
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I do that almost every time. Comments now open.
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I don’t want to be overly negative, but please get stuff like this right, and please check if you’re not sure: there was a lot of good in the article, and I don’t want it undone.
No, Graeme please be extremely negative because there's no excuse for getting something so basic so badly wrong. This isn't some recondite piece of political nerd-fu, people, and even if your subs were suffering from a post-final hangover surely the Elections folks would be happy to do the fack-checking for you?
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it's kinda funny that no-one checked
Don't be silly. Paying fact-checkers might reduce this quarter's profit.
You should invoice the publisher for your efforts here.
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Excellent thank you - I'm giggling over the thought of people breaking out of jail in order to vote .....
presumably people on remand (ie not yet convicted of anything) are also allowed to vote?
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(oh and are those on weekend furlough the week before allowed to cast absentee ballots?)
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I don't want to be overly negative, but please get stuff like this right, and please check if you're not sure: there was a lot of good in the article, and I don't want it undone.
I guess it's not as bad as the hanging chads fiasco that was the 2000 presidential count in Florida. Still, is there any clause in the Electoral Act that safeguards against misleading of voters?
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So don’t forget to enrol. And don’t forget to vote!
Yes, Vote early, Vote Labour, Vote often.
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I wonder why we don't have a motor-voter type system, which would be straightforward with current information systems.
Driving license applications and renewals could be cross checked against immigration / citizenship databases (which they are already to some extent, in that a passport/birth/citizenship certificate is required for initial ID). The same could be done with passports, tax file numbers and benefit/student loan applications, for those that don't drive.
Then a very large percentage of the country would get registered and one would just have to show ID in order to vote.
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Well ours is (or rather was) based on that form you fill in when you file your change of address with the Post Office - the PO used to do all the enrollment back in the day before it was semi-privatised
Somewhere there's a list, maybe driven from school records - both my kids (NZ citizens but born overseas so it isn't driven from birth records) received nice letters congratulating them on their upcoming 18th birthdays and inviting them to register to vote
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
The Electoral Commission use postal changes of address and the like to track peoples changes of status and invite them to register. My suggestion is to go a stage further and if the records indicate that someone is eligible to vote, then register them automatically.
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3410,
Halfway through the election period and this time around there's so far zero television presence from Elections NZ reminding people to enrol.
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Sacha, in reply to
I've been seeing TV adverts all through RWC games, for one.
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Emma Hart, in reply to
My suggestion is to go a stage further and if the records indicate that someone is eligible to vote, then register them automatically.
And put them on the published roll?
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3410,
I've been seeing TV adverts all through RWC games, for one.
Good to know. I thought I'd been keeping enough of eye out to see them if they were there.
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Craig Ranapia, in reply to
I wonder why we don’t have a motor-voter type system, which would be straightforward with current information systems.
Who else is seeing the potential for electoral fraud increasing exponentially? I've been at this address for eight years, and am still getting mail (including correspondence from the IRD) for the previous owner's tenants. I guess not everyone is as anal about making change of address cards part of moving house.
And as Emma alluded to, I can imagine there are a reasonable number of women who would prefer not to have their addresses automatically available to any stalker or abusive ex- who spends a few minutes at the nearest large library.
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
presumably people on remand (ie not yet convicted of anything) are also allowed to vote?
Yes. The operative word is "sentenced".
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Well ours is (or rather was) based on that form you fill in when you file your change of address with the Post Office – the PO used to do all the enrollment back in the day before it was semi-privatised
They still do. The Electoral Enrolment Centre is a business unit of New Zealand Post.
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Still, is there any clause in the Electoral Act that safeguards against misleading of voters?
Yes. Winston Peters (I think) got them to add one a few years' back. However, it only applies on election day and during the 48 hours before it.
It happens to be the reason I always got annoyed with Jim Anderton's argument in favour of the Electoral Finance Act. The things he was complaining of (a misleading ad drop shortly before the election) were more illegal (i.e. much stiffer penalty) under the old law than they were under the law he was promoting to remedy his concern.
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
Then a very large percentage of the country would get registered
A very large percentage of the country is registered :-)
We're recognised as world leaders in electoral enrolments.
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
I'm sure one could have a checkbox on tax and driver forms as to whether one wanted to be on the published roll.
In terms of preventing fraud, at the moment we rely on the idea that one has to re-register each year (?) at home and then vote at a local polling booth, where they tick you off a manual list. That could be replaced by a system where you go to any polling booth, show id and get checked off a national computer register and given a ballot paper.
(I don't advocate fully electronic voting because of the scope for abuse, but semi-electronic voting would seem sensible).
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Rich of Observationz, in reply to
91%, but only 73% in the 18-24 bracket.
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Graeme Edgeler, in reply to
In terms of preventing fraud, at the moment we rely on the idea that one has to re-register each year (?) at home and then vote at a local polling booth, where they tick you off a manual list.
You do not need to re-register every year (or even every three). We run a continuous enrolment system, whereby people are enrolled until there is reason to remove them. Before each election, the Electoral Enrolment Centre sends every registered voter a letter, but if the enrolment details are unchanged, nothing needs to be returned.
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Stephen Judd, in reply to
only 73% in the 18-24 bracket
I suspect that in part that's to do with the great mobility of that age group, as almost all the processes in getting enrolled and staying enrolled are implemented by letter and paper forms. I have had some involvement with dealing with the issues around returned mail for EEC correspondence and while it's amazing what they do to try and stay in touch, there are limits when people move from flat to flat and don't leave forwarding addresses.
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Hebe, in reply to
Bloody Gumby again. I loathe that orange twerp.
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Kumara Republic, in reply to
I suspect that in part that’s to do with the great mobility of that age group, as almost all the processes in getting enrolled and staying enrolled are implemented by letter and paper forms. I have had some involvement with dealing with the issues around returned mail for EEC correspondence and while it’s amazing what they do to try and stay in touch, there are limits when people move from flat to flat and don’t leave forwarding addresses.
In which case, TXT or social networking sites could fill the vacuum.
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