WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand’s Electoral Commission launched a campaign Monday urging New Zealanders at home and abroad to register to vote or update their details in the system, warning that a legal change ahead of November’s election means voters must be enrolled in advance.Measures enacted by government lawmakers in December and lambasted by their opponents removed a policy allowing New Zealanders aged 18 and older to enroll on election day, including when they arrived at a polling place to cast their vote. New Zealanders must now be registered and have their addresses and other details updated in the system 13 days before election day, or they will be turned away from polling places. This year’s enrollment deadline is Oct. 25 ahead of the Nov. 7 election. They can begin voting from Oct. 26 in the country, or from Oct. 21 if they are overseas.The country’s center-right government, which is seeking a second term in power, introduced the enrollment cut-off in a suite of changes to electoral law, which also included a ban on prisoners voting and approval for larger anonymous political donations.
Enrollment deadline introduced to speed up the resultGoverning parties said the deadline to enroll was enacted to curb the increasing length of time taken to reach a final result after election day.“The experience last time was by virtue of having on-the-day enrollment we ended up in a situation where it took us three weeks to count the vote, which was the longest it had ever taken us as well,” Prime Minister Christopher Luxon, leader of the National party, told Radio New Zealand in July.
