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Lorde will be asked to remove a post on social media which breaches the Local Electoral Act.
NZ musician Lorde called on Kiwis to go to the polls, but a photo she shared to her 9.5 million followers breaks election rules.
Around 4.30am on Tuesday Lorde shared a photo of a voting ballot with a single tick for Auckland mayoral candidate Efeso Collins on social media. It stayed up until at least 9.30am.
“I’M PROUD TO BE VOTING…,” it read.
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In smaller text, she added that voter turnout was low, and encouraged people to “get out there… your community needs you.”
At 11am Lorde posted to Instagram telling fans “the electoral commission told me off”.
She said she was told she couldn’t post “anything about who you’re going to vote for” which was incorrect.
People are free to share who they vote for, they just aren’t allowed to share documents which instruct people on how to vote for certain people.
The picture she shared came from a different account, but electoral officer Dale Ofsoske said it didn’t need to be your own ballot in order for it to be a breach.
“Basically, you can put up a billboard or advertise with a name and a tick… [but] you cross a line when multiple candidates are listed, and you indicate how to vote.”
He said people encouraging others to vote was “noble”, but they shouldn’t instruct others on how to do it in that way.
A permissible way would be to simply post an endorsement for particular candidates, he said.
He said the general public were unlikely to know it was a breach of rules, so when complaints were made people were asked to remove the post. Failure to do so could mean Police would be notified, and upon conviction the person who breached the rule could be fined up to $5000.
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Lorde, who was currently in the US, declined to comment, according to a colleague based in New Zealand.
Breaching the Local Electoral Act in this way was something even experienced politicians have done this election season.
Last week, Christchurch city councillor Aaron Keown, who was seeking a fourth term on council, was ordered to remove a photo of his voting ballot from social media.
Keown said he had not been aware of the rules, despite having run in six elections.
He said his motivation had been to encourage people to vote, as turnout had been low.
As of October 3, 16.7% of Auckland voters had submitted their ballot, down 3.2% from this time in the previous election.
