12/07/22
Ella
By email to:
[FYI request #19833 email] Dear Ella
OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST 2022/23
On 5 July 2022 you made a request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA) for the
following information:
I am interested in how the constituencies (e.g. general electorates and local government wards)
of prisoners are determined when a prisoner enrols on the electoral roll or updates their details
while in prison.
Specifically, I would like to know:
- If an eligible prisoner enrols to vote for the first time while in prison, what location or address is
used to determine the general electorate or local government ward they belong to?
- Are prisoners prompted by Electoral Commission communication to update their electoral
enrolment details in the lead up to a local or general election?
In response to your first question, any newly enrolled elector must register using the last address at
which they lived for more than a month. For a prisoner, this will be an address prior to imprisonment
as the prison address cannot be used as the elector’s address.
In response to your second question, the Electoral Commission contacts all enrolled electors by mail
as part of our Enrolment Update Campaign before each election. In addition, the Electoral Act 1993
provides that Corrections’ staff must facilitate and advise about prisoners’ right to enrol. This
happens either when received into prison, or if the sentence is for three years or more then this
happens at the end of the sentence.
In the interests of transparency, we release responses to Official Information Act requests every 3
months. We will publish this response with your personal details redacted.
You have the right under section 28(3) of the Act to make a complaint to the Ombudsman if you are
not satisfied with the response to your request. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Kristina Temel
Manager Legal and Policy
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030 Fax +64 4 495 0031
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
