Blair Jackson/Stuff
Southland District mayor Gary Tong watches mayoral candidate Kirsty Pickett at a meet the candidates function in Te Anau on September 27. Pickett has recently been speaking out on some voting packs going out late.
A Southland District mayoral candidate, concerned voting papers may not be counted in time, says all council offices must be opened up this week.
Kirsty Pickett, in an open letter addressed to incumbent mayor Gary Tong and council chief executive Cameron McIntosh, calls on the council to open all its offices this week, so people can hand-deliver their voting papers.
Council offices that are not open five days a week or only operate partial hours during the day include: Wyndham, Lumsden, Stewart Island, Te Anau and Wyndham. The rest are Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm.
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She is asking that every office is open and accessible to ratepayers and residents every day up to midday on Saturday.
Pickett’s concerns came after she received her voting papers after the September 21 deadline. She is worried that because of the delays in getting them out to people via post, then they may not make it back in time, even if they are posted by the cut-off date.
She believed that by having all offices open it would not just assist people who had received late voting packs, but would also increase accessibility for all potential voters.
On Friday, Southland District Council electoral officer Robyn Rout said “very little feedback” had been received that voting papers were received late, but also acknowledged there was no way of measuring how many might have been late.
Voting papers clearly outlined when they needed to be in the post by, and this allowed time for the papers to get to the electoral officer before voting closed, Rout said.
Council chief executive Cameron McIntosh said he welcomed the attention being cast on the voting process in the final week.
He assured voters that every vote received until 12pm on Saturday would be counted, and that votes collected from council offices were transported by an internal council courier system and not the general mail.
Given that it was a Sunday, he could not guarantee all offices could be open five days this coming week, but said it was something he would “absolutely look at”.
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