Government moves to end same-day enrolment under new electoral law changes

Thursday, 24 July 2025

The Government is pushing changes to electoral law which will make it remove the ability for citizens to enrol to vote in the fortnight ahead of an election.

Under the current law, you can enrol to vote even on election day. Opposition parties chastised the coalition on Thursday, calling the move unconstitutional and bordering voter suppression.

But Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith said the work required to verify late enrolments was overwhelming the Electoral Commission, while Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour said anyone leaving enrolment to the last minute was “a drop kick”.

The changes to voter enrolment law were just one of a number of changes Goldsmith proposed to the Electoral Act and Constitution Act on Thursday.

These include requiring 12 days of advance voting, creating a new offence prohibiting free food, drink or entertainment near polling places during voting, and adjusting the donation disclosure threshold from $5000 to $6000.

The bill also introduces automatic enrolment updates using data from other agencies, and removes postal requirements to allow for more digital enrolment methods.

Special vote processing will begin earlier, and the Electoral Commission’s board may expand from three to seven members.

Another significant change is the reinstatement of a total ban on prisoner voting.

A separate bill will also amend the Constitution Act 1986 to ensure executive government continues smoothly post-election.

Greens: Law reforms ‘weakens democracy’

Green Party spokesperson for Democracy and Electoral Reform, Celia Wade Brown, said the move restricted voting rights and made “it easier for the wealthy to donate to political campaigns under the cover of anonymity”.

“Requiring enrolments before voting starts will see even more people miss out from expressing their democratic right. In the last General Election, over 200,000 people enrolled to vote or updated their details in the last 12 days,” she said.

“These changes would see all of these people miss out on having their say.”

Seymour: ‘I'm a bit sick of drop kicks’

Seymour dismissed concerns that the reforms would unduly limit the ability for New Zealanders to vote, saying it would impact only “drop kicks”.

“Frankly, I’m a bit sick of drop kicks that can’t get themselves organised to follow the law - registering to vote is a legal requirement - then going along and voting to tax away hard working people’s money,” Seymour said.

When asked if it was fair to call those people “drop kicks”, given people are busy with work - which pays for the Government’s taxes, Seymour said it was fair.

“Well, there’s about 1000 days between elections. If they’re working for 1000 days straight, then I’ll go and register for them. But for everyone else, I think you could probably find some time to go online for a few minutes and register to vote,” he replied.

Labour: Seymour’s attitude ‘outrageous’

Labour Party justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said Seymour showed “disrespect” to ordinary New Zealanders.

“It is outrageous to call people who haven’t enrolled to vote drop kicks. There were 110,000 of them at the last election. It just beggars belief that that is the kind of disrespect the leader of the ACT Party has for ordinary New Zealanders,” he said.

The Government confirmed this bill would go through a full select committee process.