Controversial changes to voter enrolment won’t speed up final count: Electoral Commission

Thursday, 25 September 2025

The Government’s push to limit the time Kiwis have to enrol to vote will not speed up the time it takes to count the votes, the Electoral Commission says.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is progressing a controversial bill that will stop Kiwis enrolling to vote two weeks before election day, which he has argued will speed up the processing of final votes after election day.

Goldsmith set out a target of getting final results back 14 days after the election, six days faster than in 2023, and has said that the changes are necessary to at least keep the count within 20 days.

But the agency that counts the votes told the Justice Select Committee today that with or without the changes, they would still look to make the 20-day time frame.

Chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne said the final vote count would still take 20 days with the law change because the forecast rise of special votes was so high that necessary integrity checks would mean 20 days were still needed.

Speaking to The Post after the committee, Le Quesne said that even if the law wasn’t passed the commission would still aim to have the final count completed in 20 days.

“We would still work to 20 days,” he said.

He said this might require some replanning and reprioritisation but the commission would not need any new funding.

He repeatedly noted that the commission did not recommend the controversial law change, which was savaged by other experts at the select committee and was not recommended by Justice Department officials either.

Asked if he disagreed with the law, he said it wasn’t the Electoral Commission’s role to have a view.

People have been able to enrol until the day before the election for decades, and since 2020 have been able to enrol to vote on election day itself.

At the last election around 230,000 voters either enrolled on the day or in the lead-up to the election, and would not have been allowed to do so under the proposed law.

Goldsmith told The Post that the advice he had seen suggested some change to the number of special votes was needed to stop the final count taking longer.

“The final vote count used to take two weeks, last election it took three. The clear advice we had, was one of the primary reasons for this was due to the massive increase in special votes, and without changes, could take even longer,” Goldsmith said.

“Combined with other changes such as the introduction of automatic enrolment, the Government’s expectation is the Electoral Commission speeds up the vote count process over time.”

Experts slam law

The Law Society said it had “serious concerns” with both the bill itself and the way it was designed without bipartisan input or due consideration of the fact that it would breach the Bill of Rights Act.

“It appears doubtful that these reforms will be effective in alleviating pressure on election timeframes. Officials have identified that alternative longer-term changes like automatic enrolment updates can deliver greater benefits while mitigating negative impacts on voter participation,” the society wrote.

The Human Rights Commission said young people would be disproportionately hurt by the change and attacked the Government for not consulting civil society before Cabinet had made a decision.

Officials at the Ministry of Justice warned against this move, arguing it could have serious impacts on voter participation but may not necessarily help speed up the count. Attorney-General Judith Collins has also confirmed that it breaches the Bill of Rights Act.

Labour’s justice spokesperson Duncan Webb said the admission by the Electoral Commission showed National were more interested in restricting votes than speeding up the count.

“The frank admission by the electoral commission that enrolment changes won’t shorten vote counting times reveal this for what it really is - tilting the playing field in favour of the government by making it harder for ordinary people to vote,” Webb said.

When passing the bill at first reading, Goldsmith argued that the changes were crucial as Kiwis were getting mixed messages about when to enrol - and rejected the idea of purposeful disenfranchisement.

“We've heard lots of claims about 100,000 people being disenfranchised. I reject that absolutely. Around 110,000 enrolled or updated their enrolment details on election day last year only because they were told they could, so some people did,” Goldsmith said.

“The message will be different this election. People will be told they need to be enrolled well before voting starts. It's not that hard, and people are capable of doing these things.”

ACT leader David Seymour courted controversy by referring to those who did not enrol early as “dropkicks”.