SOLGM Electoral Working Party

The Electoral Working Party (EWP) is concerned with the organisation and conduct of local elections. Its membership includes representatives of Local Government New Zealand, the Ministry of Health, the Department of Internal Affairs and local authority electoral officers.

The EWP played a key role in the development of the Local Electoral Act 2001 and has acted as an advisor to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee during its post elections reviews of the operation of the legislation.

Members of the SOLGM Electoral Working Party

Peter Guerin (Chairperson) Chief Executive Rotorua District Council	Gavin Beattie Senior Policy Analyst Department of Internal Affairs
Ross Bly Electoral Officer Wellington City Council	Graeme Cox Christchurch City Council
Susan Jones Electoral Officer Gore District Council	Pam Jordan Electoral Officer Dunedin City Council
Sam Kunowski Senior Advisor, Governance and Crown Entities Ministry of Health	Warwick Lampp Electoral Officer electionnz.com Ltd
Dale Ofsoske Electoral Officer Independent Elections Services Ltd	Jude Pani Democracy Manager Hastings District Council
David Pannett Senior Advisor Governance, Ministry of Health	Mike Reid Strategy Leader-Governance Local Government New Zealand
Barry Rollo Electoral Officer New Plymouth District Council	Eric Sinclair General Manager, Finance and Information Wairarapa District Health Board
David Smith Chief Executive SOLGM	Andrew Tester Policy Analyst, Local Goverment Operations Department of Internal Affairs
Jude Wadsworth Electoral Officer Kapiti Coast District Council

E-Voting Initiative

The Electoral Working Party has developed a strategy document entitled The Way Forward for E-voting in Local Government Elections and Polls with the aim of promoting .provision for trails of e-voting in local elections and polls, if possible before the 2013 local authority elections. 

The Working Party provided the document and made a presentation to representatives of the relevant government agencies on 28 September.

It met with them again and received feedback from those agencies on 19 October. While officials are obviously unable to make commitments about the priorities of their incoming Ministers, their responses were positive, and the EWP was encouraged to continue its work to develop a more detailed picture of the regulatory framework that would be required for e-voting.

The EWP will continue to actively work on this over the next few months.

Download the E-voting Strategy Paper here (PDF 351KB)

Business Plan  Through to 2013 Local Elections

Download the SOLGM Electoral Working Party Business Plan Through to the 2013 Local Elections (PDF 113 kb)

Resources and Submissions

Here are some of the resources produced by the Electoral Working Party:

• Code of Good Practice for the Management of Local Authority Elections and Polls
• Submission to the Justice and Electoral Select Committee on the Inquiry of the 2007 Local Elections (PDF 3.29 mb)
• Report to SOLGM Electoral Working Party on Visit to Observe English Local Elections and Meetings With Key Agencies - April/May 2008 (PDF 360 kb)

Events

Electoral Officers Training will be held in Wellington in February 2010 Visit the SOLGM Opus Business School section of the website for further information.