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The coalition Government plans to make numerous changes to New Zealand’s electoral laws including stopping people from being able to enrol to vote on polling day.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says: “Allowing late enrolments, however well intentioned, has placed too much strain on the system.
“The final vote count used to take two weeks. Last election it took three.
“If we leave things as they are, it could well take even longer in future elections.
“The 20-day timeframe for a final result will likely already be challenging to achieve at the next election without changes.
“Therefore, the Government has agreed to close enrolment before advance voting begins.”
People will need to make sure they enrol or update their enrolment details by midnight on the Sunday, before advance voting opens on Monday morning.
“This is a significant, but necessary change,” Goldsmith says.
“The Electoral Commission will have plenty of time to run an education campaign to ensure people understand the new requirements.”
A new offence will be created to strengthen the rules around treating near voting places and the donation threshold for reporting the names of party donors is being adjusted from $5,000 to $6,000, to account for inflation.
Key changes include:
- Closing enrolment 13 days before election day to reduce pressure on post-election timeframes.
- Requiring 12 days of advance voting at each election.
- Introducing automatic enrolment updates so the Electoral Commission can update people’s enrolment details using data from other government agencies.
- Enabling greater use of digital communication by removing postal requirements for enrolment.
- Creating a new offence that prohibits the provision of free food, drink or entertainment within 100 metres of a voting place while voting is taking place. It will be punishable by a fine of up to $10,000.
- Reinstating a total ban on prisoner voting.
- Enabling special vote processing to begin earlier.
- Increasing the Electoral Commission’s board from three to up to seven members.
- Setting a single deadline for all candidate nominations.
- Changing party registration requirements and timeframes.
- Providing flexibility on the contact details that can be included in promoter statements.
The Government is progressing a separate bill to amend the Constitution Act 1986 to ensure the continuity of executive government in the post-election period.
The Labour Party says the electoral law changes will make it harder for tens of thousands of New Zealanders who will “miss out on exercising their democratic right to vote” as a result.
“The National Party is changing the rules on same-day enrolment, which in the last election would have seen about 110,000 people miss out on voting,” party justice spokesperson Duncan Webb says.
“That’s about the same number of people as live in Lower Hutt.
“This is an appalling change that will make it harder for a lot of people to exercise their democratic right.
“The Government’s justification is the speed of results. That is no reason to make it harder for people to vote in the first place.
“As a country we should be encouraging voter turnout and making changes to support that – not shutting them out.
“They’re also raising the donation threshold, so political parties can spend more money on their campaigns, meaning big money will have a greater influence on our politics.”
And the Green Party says the Government is weakening New Zealand’s democracy by “restricting voting rights and making it easier for the wealthy to donate to political campaigns under the cover of anonymity”.
“These changes represent a dark day for our democracy,” party democracy and electoral reform spokesperson Celia Wade-Brown says.
“What we do with our democracy matters; who we shut out and who we afford special privileges shapes the decisions made in Parliament and the direction this country is taken in.
“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.
“These changes would see all of these people miss out on having their say.
“We’re deeply concerned to see the prisoner voting ban brought back.
“The Supreme Court and the Waitangi Tribunal have both been clear that blocking people from prison from voting is a breach of their fundamental rights.
“While the Government has taken away votes from people in prison and made it harder to vote in general, it’s made it easier for wealthy people to donate to political parties from the shadows by raising the disclosure threshold to $6,000.
“Big money in politics is a problem for our democracy, but something that benefits the coalition, which might explain the decision to allow the wealthy to donate more money anonymously.”
