People say ‘voting for the first time is a rite of passage’, or ‘voting is a civic duty’, but they seldom explain how you actually vote – the nuts and bolts of it.
Photo: New Zealand Electoral Commission
Step one: Are you enrolled to vote?
You must be enrolled to vote. It’s really easy. You can:
- Enrol online with a RealMe ID
- Download a form and send it in
- Fill out a form at any post office or post office agency
- Phone the Electoral Commission on 0800 367 656 to get sent a form
- Text your name and address to 3676 to get sent a form
If you’re already enrolled but haven’t received a letter recently from the Electoral Commission they may have your address wrong – so you might be enrolled in the wrong electorate. You can check that online too.
To be listed on the printed electoral roll, you needed to be enrolled by August 23 - but don't let anyone tell you that you can't vote if you haven't enrolled yet. You can enrol right up until the day before the election - you'll just need to cast a special vote on the day (which is still extremely simple - it may just take a few minutes longer).
Voting on election day - what happens
The most obvious way to vote is rock up to a polling place on Saturday, September 23 anytime between 9am and 7pm.
Polling places are usually at public hubs like school halls, church halls, or libraries.
If you enrolled before August 23, the Electoral Commission will send you a pack a week before the election with details about polling places near you. Otherwise, you can call 0800 367 656 for information or check the commission's website.
It’s so easy to vote in person it’s almost an anti-climax. You go to any polling station. You don’t need ID to vote, just your name and address (but if you take the EasyVote card that should arrive in the mail, it will make it even faster and easier).
The polling staff will tick you off their electronic list as having voted (so you don’t pop down the road and do it again), and give you the ballot papers for your electorate vote and party vote.
You take your papers to one of the cardboard booths erected for your privacy and mark your choices. Then put them in the appropriate ballot box. There will be ballot boxes for Māori and general electorates.
Voting is utterly private. There is no way for anyone to know how you voted. And you aren’t allowed others with you at your booth unless you require physical help.
So you can entirely vote according to your own conscience. This after all is your vote. It’s not your partner’s vote, or that of your boss, parent, union, church, or anyone else.
Voting early
You don’t have to wait until election day to vote. You can vote anytime from Monday 11 September at an early polling place. Again, they are at local public hubs near you.
So, 'I’m busy on election day' isn’t an excuse to not vote.
Early voting is just like voting on election day, but with more time to wait in suspense.
Voting from home or hospital
There’s no excuse even if you can’t leave home to vote. You can ask for voting papers to be sent to you, or ask someone to collect them on your behalf.
And if you’re at a retirement home or in hospital voting papers will be brought to you without you needing to ask.
Voting from overseas
You can vote from anywhere; New York, the North Pole, or a deck chair on the Titanic (this would require diving equipment or a time machine). There are three different ways to vote from overseas.
- You can call into a New Zealand embassy or consulate if there’s one nearby
- You can ask for voting papers to be sent to you, fill them in and send them back.
- You can download voting papers, fill them in, take a picture of them and email the picture back. How simple is that?
Disability Voting
If you are blind or physically unable to mark up ballots you can vote over the phone, but you have to pre-register to do this.
Languages
You can vote in a wide array of non-English languages as well.
Really – how much easier could they make it?
Yes, they could come to your place with chocolate and flowers, cook you dinner while explaining it all to you and then wait on you hand and foot while you do the paperwork – but really, where’s the fun in that?
