Voting papers are arriving in letterboxes across Auckland, but turnout is tracking below 2022 and 2019. Photo: Supplied via LDR
The chief electoral officer for Auckland's local body elections says difficulties with the special voting process have been raised with the Department of Internal Affairs.
Despite 10,000 Aucklanders casting special votes this elections, almost half had to be thrown out due to incorrect or missing declaration details, or outdated enrolment details.
Chief electoral officer Dale Ofsoske told RNZ they often saw mistakes being made by special voters.
He said in a number of cases this year, while some special voters filled out their voting form, the separate declaration form that needed to be dated, signed, and witnessed was incomplete.
"The special vote process is complex and robust.
"I think it would be worthwhile to have further discussions with lawmakers to see how we can streamline this process. Do we need to be so rigorous with our declaration, for example, simply because the law tells us we must do? That's been raised with the Department of Internal Affairs because of this election."
He said that with a record high number of special votes being cast in Auckland, the number of invalid special votes was also high.
"We had a 50 percent increase in the number of special [from 2022]."
He said another common mistake that led to a special vote being rejected was people not updating their details and address with the Electoral Commission.
He said people also needed to have lived at an address for at least one month to be eligible to vote in that electorate.
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