Dear Mr Stoneley,

Thank you for your e-mails of 5 October and 6 November 2014 requesting the
following information about the 2011 General Election under the Official
Information Act 1982:

1)    How many people were not enrolled, as prescribed by s82 of the Electoral Act 1993 immediately after the election; and

2)    How many of those were prosecuted under s82(7)(a); and

3)    How many were prosecuted under s82(7)(b)

4)    Reasoning why, if any, were not prosecuted?

5)    The number of ‘wasted votes’ and examples of why they became ‘wasted’.

 

Apologies for the delay in responding. 

205,153 people were not enrolled as at election day in 2011.

 

To the best of our knowledge no-one was prosecuted for not being enrolled
to vote.  A conviction for failing to enrol requires that the prosecution
prove that a person knowingly and wilfully fails to enrol.  The fine is
$100 fine.  The cost of pursuing a prosecution would be high and for that
reason we prefer to use those resources to encourage people to enrol
rather than pursue enforcement and referral to Police for prosecution. 

 

You have asked for information about ‘wasted’ votes.  This is a general
term that can mean different things to different people – so I have
provided information that covers all possibilities.  Please let me know if
I have not covered what it is you were really interested in.   

 

‘Wasted votes’ is the term used for the number of party votes received by
any party that does not win at least 5% of the total number of party votes
or win at least one electorate seat (the threshold for the allocation of
list seats).   At the 2011 General Election, this was 75,493 votes or
3.37%.

 

Informal votes are votes that cannot be counted because either the voter
has not marked the voting paper or has marked it in such a way that their
voting intention is not clear.  Both the candidate vote and party vote are
separately considered.  In 2011 there were 19,872 informal party votes and
53,332 informal candidate votes. 

 

Disallowed votes are votes that cannot be counted because, for example,
the voter was not enrolled, or not enrolled in the electorate for which
they voted, the vote was received late, it was a dual vote, or the voter
has failed to complete the special vote declaration form in accordance
with the legal requirements.  In 2011, 21,653 party votes were disallowed
and 53,223 candidate votes were disallowed.

 

Further information about party votes, informal votes and disallowed votes
is available at the following location on our website:
[1]http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/elect...

 

You have the right under section 28(3) of the Official Information Act to
complain to the Ombudsman if you are not satisfied with the response to
your request.

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

 

 

Kristina Temel

Electoral Commission

 

 

 

 

 

 

On 06/11/14 10:08, Liam Stoneley wrote:

Dear Electoral Commission,

 

You have not provided me with a response to my OIA request. By law, this should have been done by the 4th of November 2014.

 

Please reply urgently to this follow up email with either the information sought or indicating a time when that will be completed by.

 

If I do not hear back from you this week, I will be complaining to the Ombudsman.

 

Yours faithfully,

 

Liam Stoneley

 

 

 

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