Sign In / Register
With the general election just five months away, a group of Waipū residents is going out into the community to ensure people are enrolled and ready to vote come November 7.
Calling themselves the “Enrolment Aunties”, the collective has been popping up in public spaces around Bream Bay with the aim of helping locals check their enrolment status.
The idea came about after group member Jan Francis discovered how many New Zealanders were missing from the electoral roll.
“I thought, goodness, maybe we could have a campaign to help people,” Jan said.
The group contacted the Electoral Commission, which supplied official enrolment forms so those who are not enrolled can sign up on the spot.
“We want this process to be neutral and informative,” Enrolment Auntie Jette De Jong said.
“We are not trying to persuade anyone or give our views on how to vote; we just want to make sure that people can.”
According to current Electoral Commission statistics, more than 400,000 eligible voters are not enrolled, with a large percentage of those under the age of 30. Despite these figures, the Aunties have found that many teenagers are curious about how the voting system works.
“I think the youngsters are engaged when you engage with them,” Jan said.
“But often it is entire families who don’t vote. The Electoral Commission is sending people to its website to sign up online, but what we have discovered is that a lot of people simply don’t know how to do.”
After three successful sessions, the group had spoken to 91 people who believed they were enrolled to vote. Fifteen people checked their enrolment and discovered they were not on the roll, highlighting the importance of checking enrolment status before the October 25 cut-off.
Jan believes enrolling to vote is an important part of participating in the community.
“With so many people not enrolled to vote, you can’t really say that the government is a real representation. There are many people who haven’t had a say,” she said.
“People sometimes say that people who don’t vote are apathetic, but I don’t believe that. I think some people don’t understand the importance of voting and the impact the government has on their daily lives.”
Jette believes voting can help strengthen people’s connection to their community.
“Voting helps to give people a sense of belonging to the community, and being enrolled to vote might encourage people to take more of an interest in who represents them and what is important to them.”
The Aunties are open to more locals joining their group and are also available to visit workplaces and senior school students to provide enrolment information sessions.
“The more people we have on board, the more people we can help,” they said.
People must be enrolled to vote by midnight on October 25 to take part in the 2026 General Election on November 7. To contact the Enrolment Aunties or for more information on how to get involved, visit facebook.com/enrolmentaunties.
