Ngā Rauru Kītahi is campaigning to boost voter enrolment amongst its members – and the wider community.
Fewer than half of 18- 24-year-old Māori voters are enrolled in the Whanganui electorate, which covers the rohe of Ngaa Rauru.
On Thursday the South Taranaki iwi’s settlement entity Te Kaahui o Rauru held its first community drop-in at the Waverley Community Centre to help people get enrolled and participate in the November election.
Kaihāpai pōtitanga (electoral support) Te Aratu Maihi said it kicked off a series of enrolment events planned for Waverley, Pātea and Whanganui.
“For us specifically at Te Kaahui o Rauru, we have a real emphasis on making sure our people are really in there and enrolled and can check their details.
“However, we are open to the wider community and just sharing accessible information.”
On Friday the enrolment drive moved to the Waverley Library and will be at Pātea Library next Friday from 10 am till 1 pm.
Maihi said there’d been significant changes in voting rules since the last election.
“You can no longer enrol on voting day; it has to be thirteen days before, so the cutoff is the 25th of October.
“That’s why we’re out here so early – we really want to get as many people as possible enrolled before that deadline.”
The Electoral Commission supported Te Kaahui o Rauru with funding from its Community Education Fund to make sure people had politically neutral enrolment information.
Maihi said potential voters could check their existing enrolment details at the community sessions and also enrol on the Māori or general rolls.
“We can have a korero to better understand the process of enrolment, help you enrol, make sure your details are up to date, and checking off things like: have you received your pack yet, have you checked that your details are correct on the pack?”
Three weeks ago, 79.1% of eligible Māori voters were enrolled in the Whanganui general electorate.
In those latest figures, just 43.7% of 18- 24-year-old Māori voters in the electorate were enrolled.
Overall enrolment in Whanganui was 87.4% on August 3.
Because Māori electorates are opt-in, there’s no estimate of unenrolled voters, but Te Tai Hauāuru had gained 1300 voters when the Māori option ended on August 6.
Although the option to change rolls has closed, new voters can still join the Māori roll.
At the last election in Te Tai Hauāuru, 68.6% of enrolled voters turned out, meaning 12,525 did not vote.
Turnout was almost identical in the Whanganui electorate, where just over 68.5% of enrolled Māori voted, leaving 4,179 who didn’t cast a vote.
The non-Māori voter turnout in Whanganui was 79.6%.
LDR is local body journalism funded by RNZ and NZ on Air
