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Important decisions you can make - enrolling and voting

Voting

One of the most important ways you can take part in the decisions that shape New Zealand is to choose the people who make those decisions – your representatives.  In most cases this involves making your choice by casting a vote.  This is an election.  Usually people vote for a representative who shares their views on the things they think are important.  There is no one right way to decide how to vote. What’s most important is that you have your say.

Parliamentary elections

In New Zealand you get to choose who will govern the country at least every three years or so.  You do this by voting in the parliamentary or general election.

You get two votes

New Zealand’s voting system is known as MMP, which stands for Mixed Member Proportional. In this system you get two votes in a parliamentary election: an electorate vote and a party vote. This is because parliament’s 120 Members of Parliament (MPs) are
either electorate MPs or list MPs.  There are 70 electorate seats and 50 list seats available.  Electorate MPs are voted for by people in a particular electorate, while the nationwide party vote decides how many seats each party gets in total.  List MPs fill up each party’s share of seats on top of any electorate seats won.

What‘s an electorate?

For each parliamentary election, New Zealand is divided into geographical areas called electorates. Where you live decides what electorate you’re in and where you vote.  The size of each electorate is drawn so that roughly the same number of people are in each electorate.

Maori electorates

NewZealand currently has 63 general electorate seats. It also has seven Mäori seats. These seven seats also cover the entire country. People of Mäori descent can choose whether they vote for MPs in the general electorate seats or MPs in these seven Mäori seats.

Mäori have this choice when they first enrol or during Mäori Electoral Options held after each five-yearly census. Census figures and the results of the Mäori Electoral Option are used to divide the country into electorates containing roughly the same number of people.

Both your party vote and your electorate vote are important in deciding who runs the country:

  • Your party vote helps to decide each party’s share of all the seats in parliament.  In general the more party votes a party gets the more MPs it has in parliament.
  • Your electorate vote chooses who represents your electorate in parliament.  The person who gets the most votes becomes your MP.

To get seats in parliament a party must win either at least 5% of all the party votes or at least one electorate seat.

A party’s share of seats is filled first by electorate MPs and then with candidates taken off a party list chosen before the election.

The government will be formed by one or more parties with the support of enough MPs to win important votes in parliament.

What are electoral rolls?

Electoral rolls are lists of the names, addresses and occupations of all the people who are able to vote in a general election.  When you enrol your details are recorded on a roll for the electorate you live in permanently.  The rolls are an important part of the voting process as they help voting officials check that each person makes their two votes – their party and electorate votes – only once in an election.

There are two rolls:

  • The general roll – a list of all the people who can vote in the 63 general electorates.
  • The Mäori roll – a list of all the people of Mäori descent who have chosen to vote in the seven Mäori seats. This choice only affects the electorate vote. Voters on the Mäori roll get to make their party vote from the same parties as general roll voters.

There’s even an unpublished roll which you can apply to be on if the publication of your details – or your family’s – may lead to your personal safety being threatened.  Then you can’t be found through the details that would be included on a printed roll.

You can check your own enrolment online at www.elections.org.nz (look under ‘enrolment’) or you can inspect printed rolls at PostShops, court houses, libraries, and Registrars of Electors offices listed in the blue pages or under NZ Post in the white pages.

But you can’t vote unless you’re enrolled

To vote in the general election you must first be enrolled. In fact, while you don’t have to vote in the election, by law, you must enrol, if:

  • you are aged 18 or over and,
  • are a NewZealand citizen or permanent resident, and
  • have lived in New Zealand for more than one year continuously at some time in your life.

When you enrol your name and details are added to the country’s electoral rolls for parliamentary, local council and district health board elections.

How do I enrol?

Enrolling is easy.  Call free on 0800 ENROL NOW (0800 36 76 56) and ask for an enrolment pack or freetext your name and address to 3676. You can also get a pack from any PostShop, or download an enrolment form from the elections website.  You then simply need to complete the form and send it back.  Soon after you‘ll get a letter telling you that you’re enrolled and in which electorate.  You can check whether you’re enrolled or that your personal details are up to date at any time by going online at www.elections.org.nz (look under ‘enrolment’).  You can find out more about enrolling on: www.elections.org.nz, or by phoning 0800 36 76 56, emailing enrol@elections.org.nz, or writing to the Electoral Enrolment Centre, PO Box 190, Wellington 6140.

Moving house?

As the electorate you vote in depends on where you live, any time you move house could affect which electorate you’re in.  Even if it doesn’t, the rolls need to be updated with your new address.  An easy way to take care of this is to fill out an Application to Redirect Mail at any PostShop.  You’ll need some form of identification, like a driver licence or Community Services Card.  Another way is to wait one month after you’ve moved and fill out a new enrolment form.

How do I vote? 

In New Zealand parliamentary elections are held on Saturdays, for one day only, between 9am and 7pm.

There’ll be plenty of warning of a parliamentary election.  As well as the date being advertised everywhere, politicians will be out in force and newspaper, radio and television news will be full of election stories.

About a week before election day, you’ll receive an EasyVote pack. This pack will include information on:

  • where you can go to cast your vote – the polling places
  • how you can vote in advance if it’s going to be difficult for you on the day
  • who’s standing for election
  • how MMP works.

The pack will also include an EasyVote voting card or a letter showing your name, address and the electorate for which you’re enrolled.

Not in your electorate on Election Day?

If you know you’re going to be away from your electorate on election day, you can cast an advance vote beforehand.  Advance voting opens three weeks before election day.

Another option is to go to a polling place wherever you are on election day and ask to make a Special Declaration Vote.  This option will take a little more time than if you voted in your electorate on the day or cast an advance vote beforehand – but it’s still easy to do!

You can find out more about advance voting from www.elections.org.nz or by calling 0800 36 76 56.

Heading overseas?

You are still entitled to vote in elections when you are overseas. You keep your registration against the last New Zealand address where you lived for a month or more.  However, you can update your mailing address to a permanent contact address overseas or in New Zealand, such as a relative’s address.  You just need to re-enter New Zealand once every three years if you are a kiwi or every 12 months if you are a permanent resident.  Go to www.elections.org.nz to find out more, including how you can download and fax back your voting papers for parliamentary elections.

On election day you need to choose which polling place you’ll use. When you go to vote, take your EasyVote voting card or letter with you – it’ll make it faster and easier to vote (but you can still vote without them).

When you arrive at the polling place, hand over your card or letter to one of the officials and give your name and address, if asked.

If you’re on the printed electoral roll, the official will mark your name off the roll and give you a voting form, called a ballot paper.

If your name isn’t on the printed roll you’ll be given a form to fill in confirming your details along with a ballot paper.  This is called a Special Declaration Vote.

You’ll then be directed to a polling booth where you can make your vote in private.

  • To make your party vote you simply put a tick in the circle next to the name of the party you choose.
  • To make your electorate vote you put a tick in the circle next to the name of the person you choose.

You then fold your ballot paper and slip it into the ballot box positioned near the officials on your way out.

You can find out more about voting at an election on: www.elections.org.nz or by phoning 0800 36 76 56 emailing chief.electoral.office@justice.govt.nz or writing to the Chief Electoral Office, PO Box 3220 Wellington 6140.

Local elections

Local elections are held in October every three years (2007 and 2010 are local election years).

Your enrolment on the local authority roll is automatic if you are already enrolled on the parliamentary roll at the address where you live.

If you live in one council area and pay rates on a property in another you may qualify to vote in both areas.  You need to apply for enrolment onto the non resident ratepayer roll to the council where your other property is located.  It is not automatic.

Check the local councils website www.localcouncils.govt.nz, which provides access to the voting information for each council.

See the information sheets ‘How Do I Vote and Stand for my Council?’ and ‘How Mäori Can Participate in Local Government Elections’.

What are the different ways of voting?

How you vote in council elections is different to parliamentary elections.  Councils can choose between two ways of voting:

 

  • First Past the Post (FPP) – where you tick the names of the people you wish to vote for. You can vote for as many people as there are positions to be filled. The people gaining the most votes are elected to council.
  • Single Transferable Vote (STV) – where you use numbers to rank people in order. So you would write ‘1’ next to the person you most like, ‘2’ next to your second favourite and so on. You can rank as many of the candidates as you wish.  See www.stv.govt.nz for more information on how this system works.

Voting by post

Voting in local council elections is by post. Using the information from the electoral rolls, councils will mail you a voting pack that has the voting papers and information on people standing for election. This pack will include voting papers for choosing people for your:

  • city or district council
  • regional council
  • district health board.

You may also have voting papers for community board and licensing trust members. To help you decide who to vote for the pack will include a booklet with a profile of each candidate.

Councillors can be elected in different ways – by voters from the whole city or district, from wards (parts of a city or district) or from a combination of the two. Voters from the whole city or district get to vote for the mayor. Only voters in some areas vote for community boards.

See the information sheet ‘How Do I Vote and Stand for my Local Council?’ at www.localcouncils.govt.nz

You have three weeks to fill out the voting papers and post them back in the freepost envelope included in the voting pack. Your voting document must be received by the council by 12 noon on election day to be included in the count.

Take care when voting

You need to read council voting papers very carefully because you will have to use different ways of voting. In most cases local councils use the First Past the Post voting system on their papers, while all district health boards use the Single Transferable Vote voting system. These are quite different and if you mark your choices in the wrong way, your vote might not count.

You can find out more about local elections from the ‘local councils’ website: www.localcouncils.govt.nz. The website also has links to all the country’s local councils where you can find more local information on elections.