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November 07, 2023
Luxon has prescription to fix Electoral Commission
Claudette Hauiti
Posted On November 7, 2023
National Party leader Chris Luxon wants changes to the way the Electoral Commission manages elections.
There have been calls for an inquiry into the commission’s performance, including delays in delivering the how to vote cards, reports of confusion in polling places about how to deal with Māori voters and complaints about the time taken for counting.
Mr Luxon says he has some answers.
“I do think three weeks to get special votes counted is too long. I think we should be putting a 24-7 full court press to the job because there’s nothing more important than getting people the clarity they want after an election. I think there’s questions to be asked about whether the daily votes should be released as they count those special votes and I personally think there’s real value in the Electoral Commission doing local government elections to build muscle memory and training there,” he says.
Electoral Commission Karl Le Quesne says some of the confusion was created because 19,000 Māori applied to switch rolls after the July 13 deadline had passed, and it was also the first election where new voters could enrol and vote on the same day.
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