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“Some Advice On The Cards”

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Description: This image was published in the June 25th 1978, edition of the Tribune weekly newspaper.

An excerpt from the article read: “Some computer advice cards posted to eligible voters may be causing some people concern, says Palmerston North's chief postmaster, Mr W. H, A. Wimsett. "Electoral advice cards are progressively being posted to persons whose names are on the present Electoral rolls. “However, it should be noted that all advice cards of deletions for deceased persons, or where persons have changed their address to a different Electorate, have not yet been completely actioned by the Chief Electoral Office.”

…

“…one of the Post Office's biggest jobs has been the mammoth task of turning over the nation's entire electoral records for processing into a central computer in Wellington. Post Offices that are responsible for producing electoral rolls no longer have their old record cards for reference - these have been sent to Wellington for programming on to the computer. Before the new system, each electorate looked after the cards for its own roll. With the new system, the computer will send a print out of every eligible voter in their electorate to electoral officers, who will arrange for the printing of the roll from those printouts.”

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“The last census was key to the whole process, Mr Robinson said…. The Post Office took over the task of looking after individual electoral rolls in 1975, relieving the pressure on staff in courthouses who formerly did the work. Court registrars are still the returning officers for the election. And the election in the Palmerston North area involves another peculiarity Feilding used to be in the old Ruahine electorate. Feilding will instead be in the new Rangitikei electorate – but the Feilding Post Master is in charge of the electoral roll for the Manawatu electorate.”

Note: The woman in the picture is not named in the article.

This image forms part of the Manawatū Evening Standard Negative Collection. Unfortunately, only negatives between April and December 1978 are held.