'ERRORS IN ROLL’

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33966, 6 October 1975, Page 3

'ERRORS IN ROLL ’

> (N.Z. Press Association) , HAMILTON, . October 5. An investigation into what is described as a : mass of discrepancies in 1 the main Raglan elecI tot al roll has been begun by National Party , electorate officials. They say they have found [scores of errors and duplications which would enable (some individuals to cast two Cor three votes at the General •I Election. The Raglan electorate > chairman of the party (Mr P. : M. Hamilton) said that the . roll was the worst he had ; seen. I Preliminary checks had ■ shown that there were about • three obvious errors to every i page of the roll. National’s candidate for Raglan. Miss Marilyn Waring, aged 22, appealed to the pub•jlic to check the accuracy of i their enrolments to enable the voting numbers of the ;;duplicated voters to be elimt inated in the supplementary droll, which is expected to ■ close late this month.

“Unless the public check their enrolments there might be a vast number of duplications recorded,” she said. “At present the roll is extremely inaccurate.” ‘PHANTOMS’ Miss Waring said there was no evidence that any of the inaccuracies or “phantom voters” in the roll had been placed deliberately. But the first checks had shown that some names had been listed in triplicate, each having a separate vote number. (Voters’ roll numbers, not their names, are checked off during vote counting.) Miss Waring said there were instances where an inIdividual’s name was listed two or three times in the roll with slight spelling alterations to the names, or addresses. There were identical names which appeared twice on the same roll page but in different columns. Some people were listed

[twice, one listing showing an 'old address and a second a new one within the electorate. There were also many listed who had left the district. Miss Waring said the first checks had shown that 30 individuals were [ listed in both the Western Maori and Raglan electorates. “We discovered the extent ■of the errors by accident [when a check was made on [one family’s listing. We ■ found one of them was listed in triplicate,” she said. Mr Hamilton said the matter would be taken up by electorate officials with the Post Office electoral officers who were responsible for the [compilation of the rolls. In the 1972 General Election Mr D. J. Carter (National) had a 1231 majority (over the Labour candidate (Mr A. J. Smith) in the Ragilan electorate. Mr Carter is : retiring at the end of this I term.