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Annual Report
Purpose: To compare the citizenship register with the electoral roll so that people who are qualified to vote but have not enrolled may be invited to enrol.
DIA Citizenship disclosure to Electoral Commission: Citizenship provides full name, date of birth and residential address of new citizens aged 17 years and over (by grant or by descent).
Compliance: Inactive.
| Information matching provision | Electoral Act 1993, s.263B |
| Year authorised | 2002 |
| Year commenced | 2002 |
| Programme type | Identifying unclaimed entitlement Updating data |
System description
The Electoral Commission (EC) operates a set of five programmes designed to identify people who are eligible to vote but are not on the electoral roll (or whose enrolment details need updating). Those who are 17 years old are invited to enrol provisionally, in anticipation of when they turn 18. These programmes are:
The files received are processed together in a sequence (NZTA drivers licences then NZTA vehicle registration, MSD (Benefits), Passports, MSD (Student Loans) and finally Citizenship intended to maximise the benefits from each run.
Drivers ⇾ Vehicles ⇾ Benefits ⇾ Passports ⇾ Students ⇾ Citizenship
The process for each of the matches is essentially the same.
1. The source agency creates an encrypted file extract from its records of people aged 17 and over who supplied their details in the period covered by the extract. Each extract includes full name, date of birth, address(es) and the date the record was last updated. This file is picked up by EC staff.
2. EC matches each extract with the electoral database on the basis of surname, given name/s and date of birth.
3. The addresses for matched records are compared and if the addresses are the same, the records received for matching are deleted since the EC's records are, in effect, confirmed as current and no further action is needed.
4. Where the addresses differ, the 'update dates' are compared as EC need the most recent address. If the 'update date' from the source agency[1] is later than the 'update date' from the electoral roll record, and the EC does not have that address for that elector in their history, the details are saved to a correspondence file of individuals to be sent an invitation to update their details.
5. Random samples of 'possibly matched' records are examined manually to establish whether or not they should be regarded as matched. Where records appear to match, the process detailed in the previous paragraph is followed.
6. 'Not matched' records are saved to the correspondence file of individuals to be sent an invitation to enrol.
7. Before any invitation letters are generated, the correspondence file is sorted to eliminate duplicates. This internal check ensures that when a client record appears in more than one source agency file, only the first such record identified is used to generate a letter to the client. This prevents EC from sending multiple invitations to an individual. EC also maintains a record of information sent to it by the Registrar of Births, Deaths, and Marriages about deaths within the past five years. This is used to ensure that data matching correspondence is not sent to anyone who has died.
8. Records from the correspondence database are deleted when the electoral roll is updated for that elector, when EC receives notice of death or other special circumstances requiring that the person not be contacted again, or when it receives a 'gone no address' response that is not contradicted by more recent information.
The 'no response' category for these four matches differs from other programmes in that no further action is taken in these matches if there is no response received. Non-response is not seen as a form of agreement and this programme requires a positive 'opt-in' response.
Recent activity
| 2014/15 | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2019/20 | 2020/21 | |
| Match runs | 3 | 3 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 |
| Records compared | 32,188 | 16,757 | 30,177 | 74,345 | 28,833 | 44,112 | 9,401 |
| Invitations to enrol sent | 519 | 566 | 890 | 662 | 395 | 1,555 | 648 |
| Presumed delivered | 508 | 556 | 872 | 648 | 390 | 1,532 | 638 |
| Enrolments (new) | 90 | 61 | 87 | 106 | 30 | 60 | 164 |
| Percentage of letters delivered resulting in new enrolments | 18% | 11% | 10% | 16% | 8% | 4% | 26% |
| No response | 418 | 495 | 785 | 542 | 360 | 1,472 | 474 |
| Cost | $797 | $574 | $824 | $591 | $203 | $1,337 | $684 |
| Average cost per enrolment | $8.85 | $9.40 | $9.48 | $5.58 | $13.57 | $22.29 | $4.17 |
Only one match run was conducted in 2019/20 because a programming error omitted this data set from the other match run conducted.
No matching runs were conducted in 2021/22 or 2022/23
The utility of this provision was assessed in 2011: “Unenrolled Voters matches (August 2011)”, and again in 2016: Unenrolled Voters Programme, INZ/MoH Publicly Funded Health Eligibility Programme Matches (August 2016).
[1] The 'update date' supplied by the agency may be the last date the record was updated in any form, and does not necessarily relate to an updated address.
