April 21, 2016
Chance to engage Maori voters online lost
Greens co-leader Metiria Turei is disappointed a trial of online voting in this year’s local body elections has been cancelled.
The Government says it’s not convinced the technology was sufficiently secure to be used with confidence.
Ms Turei says security is a genuine concern, but if a start is not made with testing systems there will never be online voting.
It means a chance has been lost to get more participation in local body from people who are typically disengaged from the system, including young people and Maori.
"And for Maori it's incredibly important. We have very few Maori councillors on city and territorial authorities and we know that major decisions about resources, land and water are made at the council level and so we need to maximise our representation at the council level," Ms Turei says.
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