Enrol

Local Elections 2022

To vote in a local authority election, you need to be enrolled on either the residential or ratepayer electoral roll. Voting in the 2022 local elections will occur from Friday 16 September to 12Noon, Saturday 8 October.

Residential Electors

If you are registered to vote on the electoral roll, you are automatically enrolled to vote in local elections on the residential roll. You will receive a voting document so that you can vote by post.

If you are not on the residential electoral roll, or your details have changed (such as your address), you can make changes by:

To vote at the elections, you are eligible to enrol on the residential roll if you:

  • are 18 years or older; and
  • are a New Zealand Citizen or permanent resident; and
  • have lived in New Zealand continuously, at any time, for one year or more; and
  • have lived at your current address for more than one month

If you have turned 18, you will need to enrol to VOTE and, if you have moved house since the last election, you should update your details (i.e. address details, postal details) using the methods provided above.

An enrolment update pack will also be posted to all enrolled electors in late June and you can also update your personal enrolment details then.

Council will also have some enrolment packs available from its offices in Timaru, Temuka and Geraldine.

The Timaru District Electoral Roll will be open for inspection from 15 July 2022 and updates can be made until 12 August 2022. After this date, if you are not enrolled you will need to make a Special Vote.

Ratepayer (Non-resident) Electors

Electors who are on the Ratepayer Elector Roll are able to vote in the local council area in which they usually live (and are enrolled to vote in) and for the local council area where they are registered on the Ratepayer Roll.

You may be eligible to enrol on the ratepayer elector roll if you:

  • are on the District valuation roll and pay rates in the Timaru District; and
  • the address where you are registered on the residential roll is outside of the Timaru District Council area

Your eligibility to enrol or be nominated may also depend on your individual circumstances as determined by criteria in the Local Electoral Act 2001 and its regulations.

If a firm, company, trust, corporation, society partners, joint tenants and tenants in common collectively play rates on a property in a council district, one of the group may be nominated to be the ratepayer elector. The person nominating and the nominated person must be registered as a residential elector outside the council district where the property is located.

You can only enrol, or be nominated to enrol, once in a council district, no matter how many properties you own in that council district.

To go on the Ratepayer Roll, you need to apply to the electoral officer for the local council area in which you own property but do not usually live.

Please contact us if you have any questions.

Last updated: 08 Jul 2022