Electoral Officer Owns up over Missing Māori Ward Candidate Profiles
- Kieran Watkins
- Sep 12
- 1 min read
The candidate profiles of Ōpōtiki District Council's three Māori ward candidates standing for election were missing from voting packs sent to residents on Wednesday.
Curly Keno, Maude Maxwell and Linda Steel were all listed in the voting papers, but their photos and profile statements were absent from the accompanying candidate information booklet.
Ōpōtiki District Council called the situation a "pretty big muck-up".
"This isn't the start we wanted for our valued Māori wards, however all steps are being taken to get us back on track."
Election Services are the external organisation that manages Ōpōtiki District's local election. Managing Director Dale Ofsoske said they sprung into action to correct the mistake as soon as it came to their attention.
A letter of apology has been sent out to the 1958 affected electors, along with the updated candidate profiles.
Ofsoske says he was the Electoral Officer responsible for checking the documents.
"I made a mistake, and we're putting in place remedies now so that electors aren't too disenfranchised."
Election Services manage voting for 23 councils in New Zealand. Ofsoske says he has been running elections for 40 years and that they've never had this issue before.
It follows a similar occurrence in the Whanganui District where external organisation Electionz failed to include the profile statements of their five Māori ward candidates, citing human error.
