General Roll or Māori roll

General roll or Māori roll?

What is an electoral roll?

What is an electorate?

What does your choice mean for you?

Example

How does my choice affect Māori electorates?

What if you change your mind?

What if you’ve been taken off the roll?

Landmarks

General roll or Māori roll?

If you’re of Māori descent and enrolling for the first time, you have an important choice to make. You need to decide which electoral roll you want to be on: the general roll or the Māori roll. The roll you choose decides which electorate you vote in.

What is an electoral roll?

An electoral roll is a list of voters enrolled in an electorate.

What is an electorate?

An electorate is a voting area for general elections. Every place in New Zealand is covered by both a general electorate and a Māori electorate.

Currently, there are 7 Māori electorates and 65 general electorates.

The voters in each electorate choose a member of Parliament to represent them.

What does your choice mean for you?

If you choose the general roll, you’ll vote for a candidate in a general electorate.

If you choose the Māori roll, you’ll vote for a candidate in a Māori electorate.

You can vote for the same list of political parties whichever roll you’re on.

Example

If you live in Gisborne and you choose the Māori roll, you’ll vote in the Māori electorate of Ikaroa-Rāwhiti. The candidate who wins the most votes in the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti electorate will be your local member of Parliament.

If you choose the general roll instead, you’ll vote in the general electorate of East Coast. The candidate who wins the most votes in the East Coast electorate will be your local member of Parliament.

If you’re not sure which roll to choose, talking it over with friends and whānau might help.

When you’ve made your choice, remember that enrolling only takes 5 minutes and you can do it online at vote.nz

How does my choice affect Māori electorates?

Every 5 years, the number of Māori electorates is worked out using results from the population census and the Māori Electoral Option.

The number of Māori on the Māori roll could mean the number of Māori electorates increases, decreases or stays the same.

Your choice will also help decide the boundaries of Māori and general electorates.

What if you change your mind?

If you change your mind once you’ve chosen a roll (Māori or general), you can change rolls during the next Māori Electoral Option, scheduled for 2024.

What if you’ve been taken off the roll?

If you were taken off the Māori or general roll before the last Māori Electoral Option started in April 2018, you can choose which roll to be on when you re-enrol.

If you’ve been taken off the Māori or general roll since April 2018, you’ll go back on that same roll when you re-enrol.

If you need to find out whether you can make your choice now, call 0800 36 76 56.