Labour Party leader Chris Hipkins said the Electoral Commission should make sure the system ran smoothly and “taking away the right of thousands of people to vote” was not the answer.
“Thousands of people enroled and voted on the day. If they’re saying they’ll stop that happening they’re basically saying that thousands of people won’t have their vote counted.
This is a nonsensical argument. Saying that not allowing someone to vote because they didn’t;t enrol in time is depriving someone of their vote is like arguing that now allowing someone who turns up at 7.10 pm to vote, is depriving them of the right to vote.
Allowing people to enrol on election day causes massive logistical problems, and it is not unreasonable to expect people to enrol before election day – especially as doing so is mandatory.
In Germany you must register 21 days before the election. In Australia it is 26 to 51 days before an election. In the UK it is 16 days. In Sweden it is 30 days. Ireland is 18 days. France 37 days.
For NZ the sensible thing to do would be to set a deadline of the day before advance voting starts. Then during the voting period, the sole focus can be on voting not registering.
David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.
4 comments:
Having a deadline to enroll is the correct answer.
Think back to Covid vaccinations and who was bribed to get vaccinated. Was it tickets to the Warriors or Kentucky Fried chicken vouchers? Or on voting day, a free feed at the Marae in Manurewa.
it’s the same group of people who are rounded up to register and vote on the last day of polling. We must stop pampering to these lazy blighters.
Next Chippy will be saying that people should be allowed to vote AFTER election day....as long as they vote Labour.
The current system clearly doesn't work very well. Stop bending over backward for useless sods who can't get their A into G and register in time.
Set a limit of X days before election day and do what most other countries do.
David, you nailed it with "nonsensical argument" - being proffered by the expert in chief of such matters, the thankfully former PM, Hipkins. There absolutely should be an enrolment cut-off date well before the actual election. That is a 'no brainer' that only those with one could understand.
I stopped reading after 'labour party leader Chris hipkins'. I'm guessing it's labour bs and lefty stupidity as usual. The comments appear to back that up.
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