Quake challenge for electoral roll officials

Returned electoral roll letters. Photo / file

About 50,000 voters have been taken off the electoral roll but earthquake-hindered Christchurch voters get to stay on.

Electoral Enrolment Centre national manager Murray Wicks said enrolment packs were sent out at the end of May.

"If you are one of the 50,000 or so voters whose pack has been returned to us because you've moved house and not updated your enrolment details, you have been removed from the electoral roll," Mr Wicks said.

But Christchurch electorates were not included in the national total of 49,966 people removed from the roll.

"The earthquakes have caused a change in so many people's circumstances, and we are very sensitive to this. To ensure that displaced Canterbury voters have their say this year, we are not automatically removing anyone's name from the roll whose enrolment update pack has been returned undeliverable until we have attempted to locate them.

"We will not be removing Cantabrians from the roll until all avenues to contact them have been exhausted."

Wellington Central has had the most voters removed from the roll (1687), while Taranaki-King Country had the least (455).

Other general electorates where more than a 1000 people were removed included Auckland Central (1378); Dunedin North (1381); Epsom (1059) and Hamilton East (1137).

People could re-enrol by going getting a form at a Postshop or online.

The Maori electorates had high removal rates, between 960 and 1200,

- NZPA