Profile error doesn't faze Taupo candidate

Doug Simmons. Photo / File

A Taupo local body election candidate has laughed off a printing error which saw his profile added to a photo of a candidate for the Wairarapa Licensing Trust.

Taupo businessman Doug Simmons was as surprised as anyone when he was alerted to the mistake which saw his profile details underneath a photo of Masterton lawyer Jock Kershaw.

"I'm going to be too busy to be worried about it. I'm going to be all over the place," Mr Simmons said.

Mr Simmons, who is standing for a seat on the Taupo District Council, said he was unaware of the mix-up but found it humorous.

He was thankful his own profile on Taupo voting papers had run correctly.

Taupo District Council deputy returning officer Tina Jakes said yesterday she was not aware of the mistake.

The mistake was not reproduced for Mr Simmons' profile in the Taupo voting pack, she said.

"It sounds a really strange thing to happen, and obviously not good for the Wairarapa candidate."

About 1000 Wairarapa voters were sent apology letters after the botch-up was discovered. "I farmed in the Waikato for 35 years ... after moving to Taupo in 1995, I've joined the Taupo Moana Rotary Club," Mr Kershaw's profile read.

Mr Kershaw said the electorate office response had been "prompt and appropriate".

"They are sending a correction notice and my correct profile to all the voters in the Carterton area ... so hopefully no harm will come of it."

Despite saying he was not annoyed by the mistake, Mr Kershaw said he thought it was "significantly worse" than the mis-spelling of a candidate's name.

To date, Rotorua has only had one or two minor issues reported, such as one person receiving an incomplete candidate profile booklet and another saying his papers did not allow him to vote for Rotorua Lakes Community Board candidates.

Almost 18,000 correction letters were sent out to people in Wellington's southern ward after the surname of candidate Donald McDonald was spelt incorrectly on voting papers as "MacDonald".

Electionz chief returning officer Warwick Lampp said the mistake had been caused by a "printing and proofing error".

"The moral of the story is that these types of errors do occur. It's human error. Despite all the checks these sorts of things sometimes do happen," Mr Lampp said.

He said the error was spotted in time to correct before sending the profiles out to Masterton and Tararua residents, but was too late to fix for the 1261 people in the Masterton Licensing Trust Carterton boundary.

"Due to the printing time we couldn't fix [the packs] in Carterton so the only option was a letter to each of these residents saying the profile you have got is not the correct one, here is the correct one."

He said Mr Kershaw's response to the mistake had been "considered and realistic".

Electionz deals with 39 of the 79 councils nationwide and Mr Lampp said he was not aware of any other mistakes.