Increased "trolling" of Dunedin’s council candidates is linked to growing social media use, the city council says.
The connection was noted in the Dunedin City Council’s draft submission to a nationwide public inquiry into October’s local body elections, which councillors will consider at Thursday’s meeting.
In it, the council backs a view of a well-regulated election process with a high level of electoral integrity.
However, heightened use of social media and online forums brought an increase in "instances of reported misinformation, disinformation and trolling".
Most reported cases involved inaccuracies in posts about candidates, the submission said.
"Unfortunately, electoral officials have very little control over social media or other online content, so the opportunity to take corrective action is extremely limited."
Candidates were typically advised to pursue the issue with the party concerned or take advice from organisations like NetSafe or their own legal
representatives.
During campaigning last year, several candidates told the Otago Daily Times abuse on the campaign trail was commonplace and largely enabled by social media.
The government’s justice committee holds a public inquiry examining law and administrative procedures of voting processes following local body elections every three years.
The council’s draft submission also reported about two dozen calls or emails were made to election services provider electionz.com over incorrect removal from the electoral roll.
More were reported online and in print.
Council investigations found removals were triggered by an address change or the return of undelivered mail and actioned by Electoral Commission staff.
While special votes were issued in most cases, removal was a recurring problem, the council said.
Initial voter turnout in Dunedin was low and it was feared the high number of candidates — 16 for mayor and 54 for 14 councillor positions — was inadvertently creating voter apathy.
The council credited a "concerted media campaign" in the final week of voting for the receipt of 25,528 (26.8%) of votes in the last five days, of which 11,358 (11.92%) came in on the last day before polls closed at noon.
The final voter return rate was 45.47% — below the 2022 election return rate but comparable with the 2019 and 2016 elections.
