September 19, 2023
Voting info for Māori woeful
Māori Party Ikaroa Rāwhiti candidate Meka Whaitiri says the Electoral Commission should have been doing far more to make voting easy for Māori.
The commission has released its lists of polling stations for early voting and election day, including 15 kaupapa Māori venues where staff will be able to give voting advice in te reo Māori.
Ms Whaitiri says it’s done a woeful job in educating and getting out information to Māori, and it also needs to have been a lot more targeted in making sure all election staff understand the needs of Māori voters.
She’s been holding workshops for rangatahi on what they can expect when they go into a polling booth..
“You’re going to go up to a person at a desk who’s got a big book. You might say, and I shared my example, they ask your name and I say ‘Whaitiri’ and they look under F. Don’t lose your cool, stand there, you might get someone who doesn’t know how to speak te reo.. They’ll question you and then they will try to give you a special vote. So I keep raising these issues after every general election and nothing seems to change, it’s the same experience,” Ms Whaitiri says.
Te Pāti Māori tried to get rangatahi registered early so they got the easy vote cards which help at the polling station..