1 December 2025
James
By email to:
[FYI request #32465 email]
Kia ora James
OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST 2025/86
On Friday, 3 October 2025 you made a request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the OIA) for
the following information:
When was the link/page - About Māori wards and constituencies - added to the Electoral
Commission website?
Please provide all emails and correspondence relating to the addition of this link to the
Electoral Commission site. This should include review of the content, approval and sign off.
Please provide all emails and correspondence between the Electoral Commission, Taituarā —
Local Government Professionals Aotearoa and Local Government New Zealand relating to
the link and the information provided. This should include first approach/initial discussions
etc
Please provide all emails and correspondence if any, relating to complaints or concerns with
this link. This should include any internal emails relating to this matter.
I apologise for the delay in responding to your request and follow-up email. You made two OIA
requests on the same day. Due to human error, the fact that this was a separate request was
overlooked. We have reviewed how this happened to ensure this does not happen again.
Decision to provide a link and timing
The Commission does not run or oversee local elections. Our role is to make sure people are
enrolled to vote and provide each council with up-to-date roll information. We provided information
on our website about how and when to enrol for the local elections.
During a local election, we receive a lot of questions from members of the public about the local
elections including questions about polls on Māori wards, that need to be directed to local councils,
who are responsible for local elections and referendums. To make it easier for people to contact
their council for more information, we provided a number of links to
www.votelocal.co.nz/ a website
maintained by Local Government New Zealand and Taituarā - Local Government Professionals
Aotearoa and
Council websites and maps - LGNZ. The pages on our website containing these links
were published on 20 February 2025.
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
These sites included detailed information about the local elections and were a single site where
electors could find contact information for every council’s electoral officer, for example, to arrange a
special vote. These sites also contained information on all of the councils that were holding polls on
Māori wards, to which we could point people to find out if their council was holding a poll. It is clear
by the way we linked to content that it was a link to external sites.
We have taken the same approach for previous local elections. We have also taken this approach for
the information we provide on parliamentary elections to parties, candidates, third party promoters
and the public, including on how to contact councils about their rules for when and where electoral
signs in their area can go up for parliamentary elections.
Our websites link to a number of different external websites, including some websites containing
political content, for example, th
e Register of Political Parties includes links to party websites. In our
view this does not compromise the impartiality and neutrality of the Commission.
As it has been common practice to use links, there are not many documents that relate specifically
to a decision to include links. Copies of what we do hold are attached.
Decision to remove the link
You have requested external and internal correspondence regarding the decision to remove the link.
Copies of complaints and responses to complaints are attached.
Erring on the side of caution, following the complaints being made, the Commission removed the
specific link that was complained about. We removed links to the vote local and LGNZ websites from
the page content of vote.nz and elections.nz for the election. To assist voters, we published a list of
local councils and their electoral officer contact details to ensure electors could find this information
if they came to the vote.nz website, and our enquiries and community teams could also point voters
to their local council to, for example, arrange special votes.
Copies of internal correspondence about the complaints and the decision to remove the link are also
attached.
Some personal information such as phone numbers, email addresses and some names have been
withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA which relates to the privacy of natural persons. In each
case where redactions are made under section 9(2)(a), consideration has been given to and I am
satisfied that the reasons for withholding of the information are not outweighed by other
considerations which render it desirable in the public interest to make that information available.
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.
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
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 Regulation and Policy
Electoral Commission
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Telephone +64 4 495 0030
www.vote.nz | www.elections.nz
