Vanishing Enrolment Records Spark Fears of Voter Suppression

Colden Sapir (they/them)

Voters’ enrolment records are disappearing into thin air. The Electoral commission claims that they are being procedurally moved to the ‘dormant role’; Te Pāti Māori are pursuing investigation and legal action against the commission. Debbie Ngarewa-Packer echoes the suspicion of many: "This is not a mistake. It's voter suppression." 

Since July, social media has erupted with angry reports of missing enrolment records, enough that even the mainstream media published a few articles. 

Alarmingly, a large chunk of the missing enrolments belong on the Māori roll. Even within a single household, those enrolled on the Māori roll have had to renew their enrolment, while whānau on the general roll are unaffected. 

Voters enrolled in advance of the election period should receive a voting pack and postal ballot to assist them in voting. If you haven’t yet received your voting pack for the local body elections, chances are that your enrolment has silently fallen on the chopping block. 

Anusha Guler, the Deputy Chief Executive of Operations at the Electoral Commission, suggests that the missing records have been moved to something called the ‘dormant roll’: 

“If we lose touch with you—for example if we get returned mail from an old address—we will try to contact you by email or text to ask you to update your details. If we can't contact you or don't hear back from you, you may be put on the dormant roll.” 

For all intents and purposes, the dormant roll is rubbish that hasn’t been taken out yet. Although you won’t receive a postal ballot, the dormant roll enables you to vote at in-person polling stations—but as long as you meet voting requirements, you can do that regardless. 

However, under recent and widely condemned changes to electorate law, voters will now need to be enrolled at least two weeks in advance of election day. Perhaps those registering on voting day aren’t “dropkicks”, as David Seymour suggests, but rather the victims of data mismanagement within an increasingly overworked, decreasingly democratic government. 

So why the sudden mass migration of voters to the dormant roll? Why are people who have not moved house in years being affected? And if the Electoral Commission was doing their due diligence in making contact, why are so many of us confused? 

It’s not my place to make your speculations for you. But seeing as Te Pāti Māori are already pursuing investigation and legal action against the Crown, the main thing we can do is make sure our friends and whānau are aware of the possibility that their enrolment, whether from the last few months or decades ago, has gone AWOL.