Dear Mr Grainger,

Thank you for your Official Information Act request dated 3 November 2011
in which you request:

-       any and all statistics the Electoral Commission holds from 1996
until 2010 of   voting and enrolment of prisoners (who were serving a
sentence of less than 3   years at the time of the election and were thus
not disqualified until the passage      of the Electoral (Disqualification
of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill).

    Can this include, but not be limited to, turnout, enrolment
    estimates, party breakdown, breakdown by candidate and party per
    booth/prison, and the number of electors per electorate in prison
    at the time of the election?

This response has been coordinated with the Electoral Enrolment Centre
(EEC).

Although information on the number of advance votes in General Elections
is available, information about the number of those votes that were made
by prisoners is not recorded.  Voting is by secret ballot, which by its
nature does not provide for a voter’s votes to be recorded.  This means
that there is no information available to determine the number of voters
who are prisoners and their party and candidate votes.  For this reason
your request is declined pursuant to section 18(g) of the Official
Information Act 1982.  You have the right, pursuant to section 28(3) of
the Official Information Act, to complain to an Ombudsman if you are not
satisfied with my response to your request.

The EEC does not have information on the number of prisoners on the
electoral rolls.  People who are in prison for a term of less than 3 years
remain enrolled at the address they lived at before being sentenced.  Some
prisoners have a postal address at the prison where they are being held
but this is a small number.

The EEC does have information about the number of people who have been
removed from the rolls as a result of being imprisoned for a term of 3
years or more.  I have forwarded your query on to the EEC who will provide
this information to you direct.

Yours sincerely

Kristina Temel
Electoral Commission

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Dear Mr Grainger

Further to the email below from Kristina Temel the following is a list of
the number of people, by year, who have been removed from the electoral
roll due to a term of imprisonment of 3 year or more as far back as we
hold any records:

2004 -   298
2005 -   254
2006 -   714
2007 - 1,092
2008 -   774
2009 - 1,000
2010 -   908

Yours sincerely

Rex

--

Rex Arrell
Manager Policy and Administration

DDI 04 801 0702
Fax 04 801 0709
[1][email address]
[2]www.elections.org.nz
Electoral Enrolment Centre
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