Tauranga Registrar of Electors Lesley Christophers urges more young people to enrol. Photo / File
Tauranga Registrar of Electors Lesley Christophers urges more young people to enrol. Photo / File
Tauranga's young voters are lagging seniors on being ready to vote in this year's general election on September 19.
The latest data from the Electoral Commissions show 70.6 per cent of the Tauranga electorate's eligible voters aged 18 to 24 were enrolled, and 69.8 per cent of those aged 25to 29, with just 40 days before voting begins.
This is compared to almost 97 per cent of those aged 65-69, and just over 98 per cent of those aged 70 and older.
In the Bay of Plenty electorate, 70.9 per cent of 18- to 24-year-olds were enrolled, and 74.5 per cent of 25- to 29-year-olds, compared to more than 95 per cent for those aged 65 and over.
Nationwide, 62.49 per cent of 18 to 24-year-olds are enrolled compared to between 93 and 94 per cent of those aged 65 and over.
Those efforts included making it easier to enrol online using a New Zealand driving licence, passport or RealMe verified identity, the spokeswoman said.
The commission also intended to provide educational material and promotional advertising targeted at younger voters, the spokeswoman said.
Tauranga Registrar of Electors Lesley Christophers said her community team had visits planned at local schools, the Canvas Careers Expo and Toi Ohomai Windermere Campus to get more young people interested and engaged in the election.
Christophers said her team had noticed a lot of people had recently returned from overseas and the concern was they may not be enrolled or their details had changed.
"We need them to make sure they are enrolled and they can use their New Zealand passport to check their details or enrol online at www.vote.nz," she said.
People were urged to enrol to vote by August 16 so they could receive an information pack with details about where to vote, the candidates, political party lists, and an EasyVote card to make voting faster.
Election day is September 19, and includes two issues going to referendum.
Two important referendum are part of this year's general election. Photo / George Novak.
The first aks whether the recreational use of cannabis should be made legal; the second whether the End of Life Choice Act 2019 should come into force, giving terminally ill patients the option of requesting assisted dying.
Voting in New Zealand starts on September 5, while those overseas can start to vote from September 2.
Mandy Bohté, national manager of Enrolment and Community Engagement, said every year thousands of voters were removed from the electoral roll because they had changed their address but failed to update their details.
"If you've moved house, you need to make sure you're enrolled at the right address."
Dr Bryce Edwards. Photo / Supplied
Dr Bryce Edwards, a senior associate in Victoria University's Institute for Governance and Policy Studies, said he was surprised more young people had not enrolled.
Edwards said given the number of young people who attended the Black Lives Matter and climate change protest marches this year, he had hoped for greater interest in this election, especially in being able to have their say on the proposed legalisation of recreational use of cannabis.
Edwards said at the last election there was a significant increase in voter turnout for young people compared to 2014, so he had hoped enrolment figures would pick up.
"We are getting a lot of young people that are more politicised and speaking up on a variety of important issues. But I'm also aware a lot of others are fairly apathetic so it is quite polarising in terms of young people engaging in our political process."
Edwards said that could be because some young voters might believe their vote would not make a difference.
"Our politicians do need to make it more attractive to younger voters to want to enrol and vote and the behaviour of some of our politicians has tarnished the reputation of politics and our political system ... Perception matters in politics," he said.
Edwards said if young people were seeing bad behaviour from MPs and did not believe they could trust the political system, it could influence whether they registered and voted.
Also, if a main political party was polling at 55 per cent, some people may feel the election result was a foregone conclusion and not bother to enrol, he said.
"I don't think you can fault the Electoral Commission who are doing a good job to get as many people enrolled as possible and trying to get young people to want to be involved."
Enrolments figures in Tauranga electorate: Aged 18 to 24 years: 70.61%25 to 29 years: 69.84%65 to 69 years: 96.9 %
Bay of Plenty enrolment figures: Aged 18 to 24 years: 70.9 % 25 to 29 years: 74.54 % 65 to 69 years: More than 95%
