Privatisation of the electoral process harms Māori and our democracy

Blunder after blunder after blunder has maimed this years Local Election process from 27 missing candidate profiles in Hastings, to Māori ward candidate profiles missing in Whanganui, Ōpōtiki, South Wairarapa and Manawatū alongside low voter turn out.

Groups like Te Maruata (LGNZ Māori elected members), ActionStation, and others are calling for overhauls of how local elections are run but I believe we need something far more drastic, we need to actually take these elections back and run them for by the public.

What many Kiwis are unaware of is that the local council elections ARE NOT run by the Electoral Commission who run our National Elections. They are actually subcontracted out to two private companies!

1. Election Services – an Auckland-based company that runs elections for Auckland Council and several other North Island councils.
2. electionz.com – a Christchurch-based company that provides election services (including postal voting and online voting systems) for many South Island and some North Island councils.

These two companies are running these elections for a set contract fee and their incentive is to do the most minimal job to gain the highest amount of value from those contracts.

We are so cheap in this country, we’ve subcontracted our democracy out to these 2 private companies and it has come at the cost of our local democratic participation.

Since the mid-1990s, (Election Services in Auckland, Electionz.com in Christchurch) began to be appointed by councils as returning officers. Over time, most councils opted to outsource because of the scale and compliance requirements.

Look at the impact of privatising local elections over that time on participation rates:

• 1992–1998: turnout in the 50–55% range.
• 2001 (Local Electoral Act introduced, outsourcing becoming the norm): turnout dropped to ~47%.
• 2004–2010: around 43–49%.
• 2013–2019: fell further to 39–42%.
• 2022: hit a modern low of ~36% nationwide.

Ever since we privatised our local elections, turn out has crashed, and that’s because these two private companies don’t care about the participation rate, they care about making money on their contracts!

And how much are those contracts worth?

It’s difficult to get a clear number, but the estimates are between $12million and $15million dollars.

I think it is outrageous that we have privatised our local elections process and are paying millions for a service that produces worse and worse participation rates.

In Auckland last Mayoralty election there were only 13 special booths for a City of over a million to cast votes if you weren’t enrolled. That’s the sort of voter suppression tactics that would make Alabama blush!

It is not acceptable that we have allowed these two private companies make the mint they are while our actual representation declines.

Now is the time to take back these elections and run them directly through the Electoral Commission and run them properly with the same amount of booths we would see for a national election and the same amount of advertising and promotion.

Why allow the free market to determine our democratic participation?