Results of Survey of Māori on the General Electoral Roll
In the 2018 Māori Electoral Option, although the percentage of Māori on the Māori electoral roll remained a majority at 52.4%, there was a net increase of Māori changing from the Māori electoral roll to the general electoral roll. This increase raises a number of questions.
In order to gather further information about the shifts across roll types, Maria Bargh conducted an anonymous survey of people of Māori descent on the General Electoral Roll between September and December 2019.
Methods
I received permission from the Electoral Commission to use names and addresses from the electronic Electoral Roll. This ensured that I had certainty the people I contacted, and those who responded, were recorded by the Electoral Commission as of Māori descent and on the general electoral roll. Names were selected randomly from across the 11 Regional Council areas in the North and South Islands and internationally. Each posted letter contained an information sheet, survey and small chocolate as a token of thanks for people taking part. Respondents could reply by post, using the enclosed reply envelope, or by scanning a QR code and completing the survey online using Qualtrics. Approval was received from the Victoria University of Wellington Ethics Committee for the survey.
Of 1,000 surveys I received 118 responses. Twenty three of 118 (19%) completed their survey online. Fourteen respondents indicated they believed they were on the Māori electoral roll and one stated that they were not Māori.
Project aims
The main aim of the survey was to determine why people chose to be on the general electoral roll. The two core questions of the survey were:
- Why have you chosen the general electoral roll?
- What would make you change to the Māori electoral roll?
For the first question (Why have you chosen the general electoral roll?), respondents had 15 statements to select agree, somewhat agree, somewhat disagree, disagree or unsure including on issues such as identity, skill distribution, Labour party, tino rangatiratanga, electorate size, knowing someone, being related to someone and choice of candidates.
80% of respondents agreed (agreed and somewhat agreed) that
- ‘There is more choice of candidates on the general roll’ and;
- ‘Māori don’t all think the same and its good to have Māori on both electoral rolls’