The Organisation
The Electoral Enrolment Centre is a fully owned subsidiary of the state-owned postal operation New Zealand Post Limited. The sole operational function of the Centre is the maintenance of databases of information about citizens who are eligible to vote and participate in the New Zealand local and central government democratic processes, and production of the associated reports. It also maintains rolls for jury selection, health and scientific research, local government and political party candidates.
The Centre is accountable to the Chief Executive of New Zealand Post in his capacity as the Chief Registrar of Electors under the terms of the contract between the Minister of Justice and New Zealand Post for the provision of Electoral Roll services. Following an extremely unsatisfactory electoral registry performance in the 1978 general election, a Royal Commission of Inquiry recommended that the government contract out management of the Electoral Register to an agent. The Post Office, as it was known at the time, was selected as the preferred provider as it already had a state of the art technology platform and the business infrastructure to obtain ninety five percent of the required information. The Centre invested $300,000 in 1980 to introduce a world leading computerised electoral management system. Following the break-up of the Post Office into separate banking, telecommunications and postal services in the 1980s, the Electoral Enrolment Centre was established as a fully owned subsidiary of the postal operation New Zealand Post.
The Centre's responsibilities are stipulated in statute via the Electoral Act 1993 and by the terms of the contract between the Government and New Zealand Post. The primary responsibilities include: 1
- Information for electors on enrolment;
- Enrolment of voters (opportunity and encouragement);
- Production/maintenance of electoral rolls and habitation indexes;
- Supply of electronic lists of electors & walk lists (residences with no enrolment) to parties and candidates;
- Hosting of the Elections website;
- Conduct of Māori Electoral Option;
- Verifying, by sample, that signatures on CIR petitions are those of enrolled electors; and
- Supply of lists of qualified electors to Courts for jury rolls.
The Electoral Enrolment Centre is based in Wellington and has sixteen head-office staff and sixty-nine regional (field) staff. 2 Field staff are geographically located in each national parliamentary electorate. A Registrar of Electors manages each electorate office. The Registrars are responsible for compiling and maintaining the electoral rolls for their electorate. As well as maintaining the electoral rolls on a daily basis and conducting enrolment update campaigns prior to all major electoral events, the Registrars also work in their local communities to encourage eligible electors to enrol. This is to ensure the maximum number of eligible electors is enrolled to vote in Parliamentary, local council and district health board elections, by-elections, referenda and polls. 3
The key performance measure of the contract between the Minister of Justice and New Zealand Post stipulates that the Centre will enrol at least 92 percent of the eligible New Zealand voting population at any point in time.
As a monopoly provider of a service, and as a division of a State-Owned Enterprise (SOE), the EEC faces neither direct competition from other providers for its product (beyond triennial reviews of its contract) nor direct scrutiny from a shareholder who receives personal financial gain from the Centre's activities. Hence, the Centre runs the risk of lapsing into the traditional state-owned monopoly problem of "resting on its laurels", incurring greater costs than may be necessary to undertake the specified tasks, or under-investing or not investing in new technologies as soon as a participant in a competitive, private-sector equivalent might. In order to overcome these risks, as part of its agreement with parent New Zealand Post, the EEC has five key drivers against which its performance is measured and benchmarked:
- Improve enrolment;
- Reduce costs;
- Be compliant;
- Be innovative; and
- Be professional.
The Electoral Enrolment Centre is funded by a budget from New Zealand Post, determined by the contract with the Minister of Justice. A minimal amount of income is derived from charges for customised lists produced for clients.
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