27 Jan 2016

Young voter cleared to have say on flag

7:43 pm on 27 January 2016

A young Christchurch man who will soon turn 18 will have his say on the country's new flag, despite being told he was too young to vote in the upcoming referendum.

Watch the Checkpoint With John Campbell interview with Finn Jackson here:

The electoral commission said it would be reminding its officers of the rules around voters who turned 18 while the flag referendum was running, after 17-year-old Finn Jackson was told he could not vote.

Mr Jackson turns 18 in March, three days after voting opens in the second part of the referendum.

Mr Jackson told Checkpoint that when he went to enrol to vote he was told he could not.

"I should be allowed to have the right to vote and this kind of thing must have happened to other people during actual election campaigns, and I just don't think it's really fair. Everyone always wants young people to get involved in politics, so I thought it was a bit weird."

The Electoral Commission had apologised to Mr Jackson and said those who turned 18 during the voting period could vote if they had provisionally enrolled beforehand.

It said it would be reminding its officers of this fact, so the correct information was given in the future.

The second flag referendum will be from 3-24 March and the preliminary result should be known about 7pm on 24 March.

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