Getting rid of same-day election enrolment is a mistake
Friday, 25 July 2025
OPINION: The changes to the conduct of elections announced by the Government on Thursday and now going through Parliament are mostly sensible - with one glaring exception.
There will be more use of technology and fewer paper-based enrolment forms (they seems to arrive in the mail with surprising frequency and a surprising number of papers). There will be automatic roll updates from other government databases.
The donation threshold for reporting names of donors will be moved from $5000 to $6000, which is neither here nor there really.
The new laws also affirm that the practice of “treating”, making the free provision of food and drink within 100 metres of a polling place, will be an offence. Use of this practice was brought to light during a series of investigations and articles by The Post’s National Affairs Editor Andrea Vance last year.
And prisoner voting was confirmed as being banned - this is an unavoidably divisive issue in that ultimately it just depends on people’s view of what rights prisoners should have.
But there is one glaring spot the Government has got wrong. And that is same day enrolment for voters.
The Government has proposed that enrolment would have to be completed 13 days before election day, the day before the 12 days of advance voting begins.
At the last election when you rocked up to vote, if you weren’t enrolled, the Electoral Commission would sign you up on the day. You could also do so and change your electorate during the advance voting period.
During the last election 110,000 people enrolled on the day. During the advance voting period, 450,000 enrolled.
The Government thinks this means it takes too long to reconcile the votes afterwards. Minister Paul Goldsmith pointed to the struggle for the Electoral Commission to finalise the vote in a reasonable time frame. In one sense, fair enough, resources aren’t unlimited.
But if there is one area where resource should be spent, it is here. Getting an extra 100,000 people enrolled to vote is no small deal. It also happens that at the last election 48% of 18- and 19- year-old Māori voters enrolled or updated their details during the advance voting period.
That system - which is now being replaced - had a simple goal: to drive up voter numbers but removing as many impediments as possible to people exercising their democratic rights.
It seems remarkable that in this era of technological advancement and so on that there cannot be a way found to reconcile enrolment information quickly to the extent that the Government is going to legislate against it.
If they think that the Electoral Commission is that useless - and there are certainly some ministers who do - then Goldsmith should move to fix it up.
Then there is some of the more half-witted blather around it. ACT’s Todd Stephenson said - and I quote this verbatim - that 'It's outrageous that someone completely disengaged and lazy can rock up to the voting booth, get registered there and then, and then vote to tax other people's money away.“
“People who want to pull the levers of democracy ought to get organised, look at the policies, and register well in advance.”
This is completely ridiculous. People followed the rules.
What’s outrageous is in this day and age that the Government can’t manage to resource, run or administer a system where same day enrolment and voting is possible. There’s any number of reasons why people’s enrolment details might be wrong or they are not enrolled.
Essentially the Government has favoured an arbitrary measure of efficiency over democratic participation - and it just so happens that a lot of those voters probably don’t vote for centre-right parties.
Perceptions of fairness matters when it comes to election rules.
One of the great things about New Zealand’s electoral system is how non-politicised it is, and how aside from conducting elections it attempts to encourage many people to vote.
The Government has opted for efficiency instead. It is a choice. But in this case, not a good, fair or wise one.