‘Surplus’ on the roll

Press, 22 November 1978, Page 2

‘Surplus’ on the roll

PA Wellington The final election roll lists lat least 400,000 voters more than the total number of people aged 18 and over last December, according to figures released yesterday. The Electoral Office said the total roll for Saturday’s poll was 2,487,594. ( But the Statistics Department said that in December' 1977, the latest estimate) available. New Zealand had) 2,057,840 people aged 18 and; over.

The Chief Electoral Officer (Mr J. L. Wright) was quoted yesterday as attributing the difference in the figures to people still on the roll who had died or moved, and those on the roll for more than one electorate. The total roll compares with 1,938,108 at the last General Election, in 1975. The average number of people enrolled in each electorate has risen lyAccording to figures given

yesterday by the Electoral Office of the Justice Department, the average for each of the 92 electorates is 27,039 compared with 22,277 for the 87 electorates in the 1975 election. The Deputy Chief Electoral Officer (Mr P. Horne) declined to estimate what proportion of the increase might be accounted for by duplications. But, he said, he thought that the percentage of duplications would “not be very high.”