And so we’re away.
We don’t have Election Day. We have Election Fortnight. It’s quite ridiculous really.
The candidates can campaign for the next 12 days, but not on the 13th, November 7th.
Isn’t that totally incongruous? What’s the difference between today, October 26th and November 7?
None.
You can vote today, and tomorrow and every day till a week on Saturday.
And every day until Friday week, November 6th, you can be bombarded by campaign messages right up to the polling booth door which might influence the way you tick.
But on the 7th, the candidates shall rest and you can make your way to the polling booth without seeing a hoarding, without hearing an ad on the radio and without getting an email from a political party.
That is utterly inconsistent and illogical. It’s even more ridiculous when you consider 61.4 percent of all votes in 2023 were in the box before the actual day.
Winston Peters agreed with me when I put this anomaly to him before the 2020 election. He said he’d do something about it. To be fair, he wasn’t in Parliament for the next three years but you’d think that if he’d wanted to tighten up election rules as this government has done, he might have looked at this incongruity when changing the voter registration requirements.
Why do we need to have such a long voting period? Why can’t we do what most of the western world does and have an election DAY?
In the UK you can vote early by post or by proxy. But you have to make the arrangement yourself well in advance so that your vote will be with the Returning Officer in time. Otherwise you have to find time between 7 am and 10pm on Election Day itself.
To be fair, the recent pattern in the UK is that only about two thirds of eligible voters make the effort.
In Australia you can vote in person before the day but you have to declare why. You may be travelling or otherwise outside your electorate on Election Day. You may cast a vote by post as well but you have to apply for the privilege.
Voting is Australia is compulsory, hence the usual 90-95 percent turnout.
The US has state-by-state rules for Federal elections and early in-person voting is allowed, as is postal voting, but anyone whose followed US elections for the last quarter century will know of numerous accusations of voter fraud. Remember the infamous hanging chads of 2000 in the George Bush - Al Gore race? Or the mysterious piles of unopened postal votes being found after results were declared in 2020?
Let’s disregard the US and compare ourselves to our Commonwealth friends and their systems of parliamentary democracy.
The key difference between Australia and the UK on one hand, and New Zealand on the other is that essentially they have an Election Day where you have to make the effort or have a good reason to vote outside the day.
We used to do that in New Zealand too. My first vote, in 1975, was cast as a special in Blenheim as I was transferring through work to Invercargill that week. I wouldn’t be resident in that electorate long enough to be eligible by the day of the election.
Memo to the 31 percent of 18-24 year olds who haven’t enrolled this year: In 1975 I was 21, single, a bit loose in life but knew enough that voting was important. I made the effort. No computers then. I think I had to fill in a form at the Post Office!
With 2026 technology there is absolutely no excuse to not be enrolled.
In those simpler times we had an Election Day. Writs for the election were issued and those who wanted to vote enrolled. If you missed enrolling by Writ Day you could still apply for a special vote up till the day before the election.
That system was more or less in existence right up till 2020, although in later times you didn’t need to apply for a special vote because the roll was open till the day before the election.
In 2020 the Ardern led government introduced Election Day enrollment.
It was a resounding success. In 2020, about 80,000 enrolled on the day. Three years later 110,000 new electors signed up.
During the advance voting period in 2023, an extraordinary 453,940 more voters came to the party. But the late surge meant extra processing and it was three weeks after the official day before we had the final result.
So what we have this year – enrolment closing 12 days before the official Election Day - is the strictest closing off of voter eligibility in my lifetime, perhaps ever. Even if you turn 18 between now and November 17 you had to tell the Electoral Commission before Sunday, October 26th so you can be added to the roll. If you didn’t tell them, then you’ll have to wait till 2029.
The Government’s rationale is that they can process the official results faster, although only by one week.
But when you consider that we have such a huge voting window, the closing of the roll the day before the voting period opens is in line with most of our modern election history.
And if you’re so disorganized or ignorant as to not be enrolled, then perhaps it’s better you don’t vote anyway!
Enrolment and voting periods aside, the question of who should be eligible to vote is a legitimate one.
Permanent residents were given the vote in 1975. Up till then it was New Zealand citizens and British subjects. But a new Electoral Act was designed to transition away from our traditional ties to Britain. Those British immigrants who didn’t wish to become citizens were still given the right to vote, a right extended as well to all permanent residents regardless of nationality.
Half a century on, New Zealand is an outlier and is one of only four countries which allows non-citizens to vote. The others are Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay and they have at least a five year permanent residence requirement.
We require twelve months.
It’s very easy to understand why New Zealand First’s citizens-only policy is so popular.
Through a quirk of history, the UK (and various Caribbean nations) allow Commonwealth citizens, including New Zealanders, who are resident there to vote.
But we let those New Zealand citizens vote here as well!
This is truly nuts. My daughter has lived in London for 22 years, votes there but because she’s been in New Zealand for a couple of holidays during the last three years, she’s eligible to vote here as well.
That just isn’t right. She pays no taxes here, owns no assets here and while she may still travel on a New Zealand passport, she’s probably (sadly for me) going to live the rest of her life in England. Yet she has the same say in our next government as her father.
That’s not fair.
Considering the New Zealand diaspora is estimated at over 900,000 the overseas voting block could be significant.
If you have citizenship, permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain in another country you have tied your colours to the mast elsewhere. Therefore no vote in New Zealand for thee!
Who knows what the next two weeks will reveal.
More polls? Certainly.
Some stunning new game-changing policy? Unlikely.
But no matter who we finally decide should govern us through till 2029, there is a serious need to have a good look at many aspects of our electoral law.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. This article was sourced HERE
None.
You can vote today, and tomorrow and every day till a week on Saturday.
And every day until Friday week, November 6th, you can be bombarded by campaign messages right up to the polling booth door which might influence the way you tick.
But on the 7th, the candidates shall rest and you can make your way to the polling booth without seeing a hoarding, without hearing an ad on the radio and without getting an email from a political party.
That is utterly inconsistent and illogical. It’s even more ridiculous when you consider 61.4 percent of all votes in 2023 were in the box before the actual day.
Winston Peters agreed with me when I put this anomaly to him before the 2020 election. He said he’d do something about it. To be fair, he wasn’t in Parliament for the next three years but you’d think that if he’d wanted to tighten up election rules as this government has done, he might have looked at this incongruity when changing the voter registration requirements.
Why do we need to have such a long voting period? Why can’t we do what most of the western world does and have an election DAY?
In the UK you can vote early by post or by proxy. But you have to make the arrangement yourself well in advance so that your vote will be with the Returning Officer in time. Otherwise you have to find time between 7 am and 10pm on Election Day itself.
To be fair, the recent pattern in the UK is that only about two thirds of eligible voters make the effort.
In Australia you can vote in person before the day but you have to declare why. You may be travelling or otherwise outside your electorate on Election Day. You may cast a vote by post as well but you have to apply for the privilege.
Voting is Australia is compulsory, hence the usual 90-95 percent turnout.
The US has state-by-state rules for Federal elections and early in-person voting is allowed, as is postal voting, but anyone whose followed US elections for the last quarter century will know of numerous accusations of voter fraud. Remember the infamous hanging chads of 2000 in the George Bush - Al Gore race? Or the mysterious piles of unopened postal votes being found after results were declared in 2020?
Let’s disregard the US and compare ourselves to our Commonwealth friends and their systems of parliamentary democracy.
The key difference between Australia and the UK on one hand, and New Zealand on the other is that essentially they have an Election Day where you have to make the effort or have a good reason to vote outside the day.
We used to do that in New Zealand too. My first vote, in 1975, was cast as a special in Blenheim as I was transferring through work to Invercargill that week. I wouldn’t be resident in that electorate long enough to be eligible by the day of the election.
Memo to the 31 percent of 18-24 year olds who haven’t enrolled this year: In 1975 I was 21, single, a bit loose in life but knew enough that voting was important. I made the effort. No computers then. I think I had to fill in a form at the Post Office!
With 2026 technology there is absolutely no excuse to not be enrolled.
In those simpler times we had an Election Day. Writs for the election were issued and those who wanted to vote enrolled. If you missed enrolling by Writ Day you could still apply for a special vote up till the day before the election.
That system was more or less in existence right up till 2020, although in later times you didn’t need to apply for a special vote because the roll was open till the day before the election.
In 2020 the Ardern led government introduced Election Day enrollment.
It was a resounding success. In 2020, about 80,000 enrolled on the day. Three years later 110,000 new electors signed up.
During the advance voting period in 2023, an extraordinary 453,940 more voters came to the party. But the late surge meant extra processing and it was three weeks after the official day before we had the final result.
So what we have this year – enrolment closing 12 days before the official Election Day - is the strictest closing off of voter eligibility in my lifetime, perhaps ever. Even if you turn 18 between now and November 17 you had to tell the Electoral Commission before Sunday, October 26th so you can be added to the roll. If you didn’t tell them, then you’ll have to wait till 2029.
The Government’s rationale is that they can process the official results faster, although only by one week.
But when you consider that we have such a huge voting window, the closing of the roll the day before the voting period opens is in line with most of our modern election history.
And if you’re so disorganized or ignorant as to not be enrolled, then perhaps it’s better you don’t vote anyway!
Enrolment and voting periods aside, the question of who should be eligible to vote is a legitimate one.
Permanent residents were given the vote in 1975. Up till then it was New Zealand citizens and British subjects. But a new Electoral Act was designed to transition away from our traditional ties to Britain. Those British immigrants who didn’t wish to become citizens were still given the right to vote, a right extended as well to all permanent residents regardless of nationality.
Half a century on, New Zealand is an outlier and is one of only four countries which allows non-citizens to vote. The others are Chile, Ecuador and Uruguay and they have at least a five year permanent residence requirement.
We require twelve months.
It’s very easy to understand why New Zealand First’s citizens-only policy is so popular.
Through a quirk of history, the UK (and various Caribbean nations) allow Commonwealth citizens, including New Zealanders, who are resident there to vote.
But we let those New Zealand citizens vote here as well!
This is truly nuts. My daughter has lived in London for 22 years, votes there but because she’s been in New Zealand for a couple of holidays during the last three years, she’s eligible to vote here as well.
That just isn’t right. She pays no taxes here, owns no assets here and while she may still travel on a New Zealand passport, she’s probably (sadly for me) going to live the rest of her life in England. Yet she has the same say in our next government as her father.
That’s not fair.
Considering the New Zealand diaspora is estimated at over 900,000 the overseas voting block could be significant.
If you have citizenship, permanent residence or indefinite leave to remain in another country you have tied your colours to the mast elsewhere. Therefore no vote in New Zealand for thee!
Who knows what the next two weeks will reveal.
More polls? Certainly.
Some stunning new game-changing policy? Unlikely.
But no matter who we finally decide should govern us through till 2029, there is a serious need to have a good look at many aspects of our electoral law.
Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. This article was sourced HERE
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