A message to community leaders and service providers

Kia ora, It’s election year and you’ve probably been wondering what that means for you and the people you work with and help every day. You probably believe that being politically active, even if only to vote on election day, is important. But how can you help make politics relevant to others that don’t think this way? How can you get them thinking about enrolling, voting, and being politically active in other ways?

The Electoral Commission is part of the Elections NZ team, which also includes the Electoral Enrolment Centre and the Chief Electoral Office. We’re reaching out to community influencers in areas of lower voter turnout. From May to July, we’ll be travelling New Zealand to present lively and interactive workshops to high-value influencers like you – people who work with communities and whanau, including youth and younger adults, migrants and established ethnic communities, the disabled (including those with learning difficulties), elderly, and others more likely to be uncertain and uncomfortable and so unlikely to take part.

So, the Electoral Education Roadshow ’08 is coming your way and it wants to help by giving you knowledge, tools and tips to help others see taking part in the election as easy, interesting and worth doing. We want to give this to you because you know and relate to your audiences way better than we ever could.

Workshop modules examine the broad concept of political participation, and why reversing declining voter turnout is important for a healthy democracy. At a practical level they give key electoral agency messages related to enrolling and voting with MMP. There’ll be handy tools and tips for getting target communities and audiences engaged in the election, plus useful facts and figures for ‘trainers’ to feel confident in their knowledge of MMP, Election Day, and the electoral system itself. There’ll also be election resources for teachers and other educators to use. The delivery will fun, interactive, and tailored to the audience.

The roadshow will have a two person team in a region for three days during a week. Here’s the plan:

• Week One (5 May) – New Plymouth and Wanganui
• Week Two (12 May) – South Auckland
• Week Three (19 May) – Christchurch
• Week Four (26 May) – Whangarei and Kaitaia
• Week Five (9 June) – Waikato / Bay of Plenty
• Week Six (16 June) – East Coast
• Week Seven (23 June) – West and Central Auckland
• Week Eight (30 June) – Contingency week

But first, we need invitations and opportunities to meet with groups of people like you (hint, hint!). We need a willing host and ideally 15-30 or more participants. Perhaps there are colleague organisations or other service providers you could invite to join in?  We will do our best to fit in requests from other regions or for other dates between July and whenever the election is announced, depending on cost and staff availability.

If this might be of interest to you then please get in touch to talk over the possibilities. Please contact the Electoral Commission and speak with Kirsten Chambers (027) 251 3033, email kirsten@elections.govt.nz. or Peter Northcote (04) 4740671, email peter@elections.govt.nz.  You should contact your local registrar of electors if you have a community event where an enrolment stand or team would be welcome.

Presentation resources

The resources described below are available under downloads, at right.  These resources will be most useful to people who have participated in Elections NZ roadshow workshops.  Many of our resources for electors and voters can be found in the enrolling and voting general topic areas, with links to material in other languages also available off the home page.  You should also check out the resources under NZ's democracy and in the Teaching & research centre, as some may also be suitable to the needs or your, your community or clients.

Elections NZ roadshow flyer - repeats the above information in a printable form.

Workshop messages - gives you suggestions for messages you could use to encourage participation in a workshop, whether run by the Elections NZ team, or later by you to your own clients or community.

Election year - get ready! (123) - explains the basic information an elector needs to enrol, choose and vote.  It is provided as a powerpoint show you'll be able to deliver after attending a roadshow workshop or familiarising yourself with relevant information elsewhere on this site.  There's also a .pdf file with handouts you can give to your participants.

Election year - so what? (participation) - outlines the challenges to NZ's democracy of falling voter turnout, explains the reasons why some don't participate with profiles of different non-voter types, before setting out some strategies for helping these people to get motivated to get ready to enrol and vote.  It is also provided as a powerpoint show and handout formats.

Quiz questions - has multi-choice question banks tailored to different audiences, which you are welcome to further adapt.  The word document has the quiz questions alone, then repeats them with the answers.

Discussing choice - helps first time voters think about how they might make their voting choices, and accept that there's no right or best way to do so.

Cartoon Conundrum - this activity can be repeated weekly to consolidate and broaden political knowledge by discussing the specific political knowledge required in order to be able to understand political cartoons.   You will need, one or a selection of, topical political cartoons from a local newspaper or available online from metropolitan daily newspapers nationwide.

Get Creative - is about learning outcomes, understanding the key messages and being able to tell others about them in a creative way.   Being creative about a message is a good way to engage particular students with a strong musical, artitist or creative interest, and instill a message.

The Man - is a game and is in the form of both a PDF and word document.

Graph It! - is an activity to help interpret voter turnout statistics.   The activity can be conducted in pairs or individually, as applicable.

Election Day Voting - Role Play - you will need Polling Booth signs, sample ballot papers and 2 Ballot boxes.    The role play is useful for children, migrants, youth and those with disabilities and provides a graphic and interactive illustration of the full voting procedure.

Online scavenger hunt - looks at using research skills and problem solving.   You will need Internet access and a list of questions or information to find, suggestions are provided.

How can I have a voice? - helps to understand the different ways that children and migrants can have a say in decisions.

Polling Place Poster Poser - helps to know what it looks like inside a polling place and what happens there.

Who makes the decisions? - helps you to understand what parliament does and what the local and regional councils do.   You will need copies of the Taking part poster, post it notes to cover parts of the poster and copies of the Taking Part booklets.

FInd someone who can tell you... - these are two quizes.  Questions range from how often New Zealand holds elections to the difference between government and parliament.

Review report

A report summarising an internal evaluation of the roadshow initiative is provided as the final download, right.  The Electoral Commission welcomes contact from anyone wanting to know more or offer suggestions for improving the initiative for future elections.