July 31, 2018
Deadline looms for Māori option
The Māori option closes at midnight on Thursday.
That determines whether voters will vote on the Māori roll or the general roll for the next two elections, and also whether the number of Māori seats will go up or down.
Mandy Bohte from the Electoral Commission says at the start of the month more than 19,000 people have switched or been registered as first time voters, with a net gain to the general roll of about 4000 and 400 fewer people on the Māori roll.
Ms Bohte says there’s still time to participate by down downloading a form from the website or pickling up one from a Postshop.
"The fastest way to get it back to us before mnidnight Thursday is to scan it or photograph it, you can do it on your phone, and then you can email it to maorioption@elections.org.nz or you can upload it directly to our website maorioption.org.nz," she says.
At the start of the option there were about 470,000 people of Māori descent registered as electors, with 53 percent of them on the Māori roll.
Copyright © 2018, UMA Broadcasting Ltd: www.waateanews.com