WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s Electoral Commission launched a campaign Monday urging New Zealanders at home and abroad to register to vote or update their details in the system, warning that a legal change ahead of November’s election means voters must be enrolled in advance.
Measures enacted by government lawmakers in December and lambasted by their opponents removed a policy allowing New Zealanders aged 18 and older to enroll on election
day, including when they arrived at a polling place to cast their vote.
New Zealanders must now be registered and have their addresses and other details updated in the system 13 days before election day, or they will be turned away from polling places. This year’s enrollment deadline is Oct. 25 ahead of the Nov. 7 election. They can begin voting from Oct. 26 in the country, or from Oct. 21 if they are overseas.
The country’s center-right government, which is seeking a second term in power, introduced the enrollment cut-off in a suite of changes to electoral law, which also included a ban on prisoners voting and approval for larger anonymous political donations.
Governing parties said the deadline to enroll was enacted to curb the increasing length of time taken to reach a final result after election day.
“The experience last time was by virtue of having on-the-day enrollment we ended up in a situation where it took us three weeks to count the vote, which was the longest it had ever taken us as well,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, leader of the National party, told Radio New Zealand in July.
Detractors, including the center-left opposition parties, said the government wanted to curb so-called special votes, which are cast by New Zealanders abroad or away from home and by those not already registered to vote on election day and counted afterward. Special votes have favored left-wing parties in modern times.
“Something that potentially disenfranchises tens of thousands of New Zealanders is not the sort of change that an individual government should make,” Chris Hipkins, leader of the opposition Labour party, told reporters in July when he pledged to reverse the measures if he became prime minister.
The Electoral Commission, an independent agency that runs New Zealand’s vote, said about 700,000 special votes were still expected. Officials predicted that even with the new enrollment deadline, reaching an election result would take 20 days after voting finished, instead of 23 days without the cut-off.
A total of 89% of those allowed to vote in New Zealand were enrolled so far, according to Electoral Commission figures. Voting is optional in New Zealand but enrollment for those eligible and living in the country is compulsory, with failure to do so punishable by a fine of 100 New Zealand dollars ($59).
There are up to 1 million New Zealanders living abroad, although it isn’t known how many are eligible to vote. Those eligible can vote from overseas by downloading ballot papers from the commission’s website, having them signed by someone else and uploading them online.
The Oct. 25 enrollment deadline also applies to overseas voters. Some people could also cast ballots in person, officials said.
“Most countries, many countries, will have our embassy and you can go along and vote there,” said Karl Le Quesne, New Zealand’s chief electoral officer.
Young people were traditionally more likely to leave their registration until nearer polling day, Le Quesne said. A campaign beginning Monday to urge enrollment before the deadline would include ads on social media, gaming and streaming platforms to target young people.
“There are still 440,000 unenrolled, of which 200,000 are aged between 18 and 25, so that’s the cohort we really need to be getting the attention of,” said Simon Moore, the commission's chair.
