Right, all you dropkicks out there - as David Seymour fondly called some voters this week - the electoral laws are changing and you’re being given a good year’s notice to make sure you’re enrolled and your details are correct before advanced voting starts in the general election next year. No enrolments or changes will be accepted after advanced voting starts.
You may think a year is adequate time to get your head around new rules and be prepared. But I was surprised by some of the stats around voting. In 2023, 134,000 people changed their physical address or electorates during the advanced voting period, and almost 100,00 people enrolled to vote.
I don’t have an issue with not being able to enrol or make changes on Election Day. But not being able to do these things during the 12 days of advanced voting before the election is clearly going to catch people out.
It’s because of the big numbers I mentioned that the Electoral Commission has raised issues around the cost and administrative burden of processing so many special votes and late enrolments.
But I don’t think this change has its priorities straight. Should it be made harder to vote just so it’s cheaper and easier on election admin? We should be making voting as accessible as possible for all New Zealanders, the organised ones and the not so organised ones, so they can fulfil their democratic right to vote, so parliament represents as many of us as possible.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith, who is championing the changes, has been warned by Ministry of Justice officials that these changes could result in lower enrolment rates, lower turnout, and more disallowed votes.
We’re being told there will be educational campaigns about the new rules and how to vote next year, possibly from the orange man. But you only need to look at the numbers I mentioned to know not everyone is seeing or taking notice of what the orange man has to say.
Goldsmith argues that we will also get results faster with fewer special votes, which take longer to process. And yes, it would be good to get a government in place quicker than some we’ve seen, but often it’s clear from Election Night results which parties have the ability to put a coalition together. So instead of waiting for weeks for a few seats to be confirmed, what’s stopping those parties engaging in the negotiation process?
Anyway, we can’t complain we haven’t been given fair notice. Just, whatever you do, don’t move house a couple of weeks before the next election.
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