Costs take toll of electoral roll

Vince Dravitzki (Letters, Sept 10) suggested enrolling voters while they are still at school.

That is something that was introduced in the early 1990s, although it was done in year 13 rather than in year 11, which Vince suggests. Registrars of Electors throughout the country tried to get in to every school to talk to the year 13 students and to get them to complete an enrolment form so that as soon as they turned 18 they were automatically placed on the appropriate electoral roll.

This was when NZ Post compiled the parliamentary electoral rolls and that same registration also allocated them to the correct local council roll. Presumably that process is still in operation, although now that the Electoral Commission has taken the job off NZ Post, perhaps that is another facet that has ceased.

Electoral rolls used to be printed every year and distributed widely so that they were easily accessed by voters wishing to check their enrolment or for people to search for friends or relatives they had lost track of.

Sadly, the distribution of the printed rolls has been cut back dramatically, presumably as a cost-cutting measure.

For instance, I recently noticed the 2018 issue of the rolls at the Alexander Turnbull Library in Wellington, but they were not supplied to the public library in Porirua, the 10th largest city in New Zealand.

Hopefully because this is a local council election year, copies of the 2019 rolls will at least be supplied to libraries of all cities in New Zealand.

Evan Watkin, retired Registrar of Electors