02-08-2025
Electoral Commission Rejects Claims Of Māori Roll Tampering
The Chief Electoral Officer is adamant his commission is not changing people's enrolment details without their consent and is pleading with people struggling to access their enrolment details to get in touch.
His comments come amidst a flood of claims on social media from Māori who allege their enrolment details have been changed, or erased, without their knowledge.
Te Pāti Māori are seeking an explanation and has advised Crown Law it wants to look into the reports as part of a two-pronged legal action against the Electoral Commission.
Speaking to RNZ, the commission's top officer, Karl Le Quesne, said they have not and would not change anyone's details without their consent.
"I can give you an assurance that we are not moving people from the Māori roll to the General roll or the other way, unless they're requesting that we do that," he said.
The commission had been monitoring their online enrolment system "really" closely this week and had so far received 30,554 enrolments and updates - 92 percent of them made online.
"We understand some people are having some trouble, so if you are, we really encourage you to call us on 0800 36 76 56 and we'll help you resolve it." Le Quesne said.
It was likely those who could not find their details online were on the dormant roll, he said, echoing comments made by the commission's deputy chief executive of operations, Anusha Guler, earlier this week.
"When we check today, we've got 114,451 people on the dormant role."
According to the Electoral Commission 2023 General Election Report, the dormant roll contains voters who have been removed from the main roll for their electorate because they no longer live at an address and have not updated their enrolment details.
At the election, there were 96,406 people on the dormant roll, and of those, 86 percent were on the general dormant roll while 14 percent were on the Māori dormant roll.
Le Quesne said being on the dormant roll did not mean people had been taken off their main roll.
"We don't switch roles for them when they go on the dormant role. We just need an address from them so we can update their enrollment."
He said the system was designed to protect people's information, and getting your details "exact" was really important.
The "auto-fill" feature on some people's mobile phones and laptops could be messing with an online entry.
"We're really encouraging people to either turn off that auto-fill, or when it auto-fills, you delete it and try and find your address from the drop-down box, because that'll find the address that matches your enrollment record.
"I tried myself this morning, and the auto-fill on my phone put in one address, but it wasn't exactly the address that I was enrolled under."
People can go online to to enrol, check or update their details, or call 0800 36 76 56.
