Ethan Tipene Miller is no stranger to the voting booth, having previously worked at polling places. But when he arrived to cast his vote this election, he says he was concerned by what he experienced.
“I tried to cast my vote on Saturday, or I did vote on Saturday, but when I went to the voting booth, I overheard the voting place manager mention that they had run out of the Māori roll forms,” he said.
Miller says he was told he would have to wait an hour for a staff member to collect more forms, but he was patient enough to wait.
Reports of voters being turned away from polling booths, with some running out of Māori roll voting papers, have raised concerns for Te Pāti Māori as the party fields complaints from constituents.
Te Pāti Māori co-leader Debbie Ngārewa-Packer says alarm bells should be ringing when democracy, fairness and equality for indigenous people are called into question.
“They’re turning up and the booths don’t have the correct Māori electorate voting papers for them. So they’ve run out and they’ve been told to come back another day or to find another booth. But yeah, of course, they’ve all caught rides there,” she said.
In a statement, Electoral Commission deputy chief executive operations Anusha Guler said voting places were prepared and systems were in place to meet demand.
“The Electoral Commission can assure voters that there are more than enough ordinary and special voting papers for the Māori and general electorates. Nine million voting papers are printed so that there are good stocks at voting places for all electorates.”
The Commission says it has processes in place when voting places become busier than expected and stocks run low.
“When this happens, a mobile team will drop off extra supplies. While those are being delivered, staff can photocopy voting papers, or hand write voting papers. This is our standard process and staff receive training so they know what to do.
“We aren’t aware of voting places running out of Māori electorate voting papers, or being unable to issue Māori electorate voting papers.”
However, Ngārewa-Packer says that does not reflect the concerns being raised with her and the party.
“This is across Te Tai Hauauru, so in Ngāmotu, at the City Centre Mall in Ōtaki, in Porirua. And we’re hearing that there are some that have been told that you can register, which we know you can’t, but they might be part of those who are still in the mail and haven’t been processed by the Electoral Commission.”
She says the Electoral Commission has had three years to prepare for recent changes to electoral law and questions whether it has done enough.
“Anything that compromises democracy, that gets in the way of indigenous peoples being able to vote is really concerning, not just to us, it’s a concern of a trend that we see across the world. Electoral Commission should be front-footing us and giving us absolute confidence that everything is under control. They’re not.”
