And then they came for your election rights…
Government considers removing election day voter enrolment
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says very few countries allow voters to enrol on election day, and New Zealand should consider changing the rules.
A report by the auditor-general released on Tuesday found an unprecedented number of special votes were cast in last year’s general election, leading to rushed final checks and mistakes.
“It’s really difficult to forecast how many special votes we would get,” chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne told Morning Report on Wednesday.
“Normally, we’d look back at what the trend was in past elections, but 2020 was a really unusual election with the change in date. We had a lot more time to enrol people when the election date was shifted out.
“We did forecast there would be more special votes and enrolments during voting, but it turned out to be much higher than what we forecast.”
…make no mistake, this is all about voter suppression, it isn’t about democracy!
The reason there were problems last election was not because the system was broken by same day enrolments, it was because the system was underfunded to cope with the numbers.
100 000 same day enrolments is democracy working!
It meant those 100 000 votes counted, but the right suspect most of those same day enrolments are poor people who vote left and that’s why they want to suppress it and kill those 100000 votes off!
One way the Auckland Mayoralty is a scam is precisely this same voter suppression tactics that limit the entire Auckland Mayoralty to just a dozen voting booths for a city of over a million.
What the Right will attmpert here is to dump same day enrolments to suppress the vote for the Left and they will call this suppression tactic ‘for democracy’.
You are watching this Government trash the environment in real time, you trust these rich pricks with your rights to vote?
You can’t be this stupid?
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“100 000 same day enrolments is democracy working!“
It’s a hundred thousand people ignorant of the way the New Zealand electoral system works, and an hundred thousand people unable to perform a simple administrative task.
It could reflect the poor quality of the available political choices as well, I believe that voting is essential however a couple of times I didn’t vote because I didn’t like the options, nowadays I just draw a line through all the options on the electorate vote & hold my nose & vote for the party that is the best of a bad bunch in the party vote.
Martyn is correct but the ever lowering bar to vote helps the left. That isn’t democratic either.
Your comment sounds like the “some pigs are more equal than others” line from the forced reading in school. As long as it is 1 person 1 vote then it has to be better to know what everyone thinks.
in the uk we read orwells animal farm and 1984 (the acceptable interpretation was very right wing) but we studied both in english class at different ages, though I suspect both are well beyond current school kids today
Allowing people to vote ‘isn’t democratic’? Interesting. Personally, I propose that a test for any moral fibre be required before voting. Technically less democratic, but it would wipe out the ACT Party.
If more people enrol on the last day the more risk exists that the process will fall over.
And yet… it hasn’t happened.
The easy solution is to have the party vote portion of the specials counted on the night in the place they were cast. The amount that would be actually disqualified is so small that any effect on result would be negligible and we’ll have a clear enough result to for parties to get on with forming a govt.
Definitely smells of voter suppression. Tories of all stripes always vote to protect their interests, new gens need to learn to do likewise.
–Participation in public affairs should be taught comprehensively in schools
–Start enforcing the right for paid workers to leave work to vote
–Increase Electoral Commission funding–wait for the CoC Govt. to slash that too…
–Set voting age at 16
–Investigate making Local and General Elections Public Holidays
The right are always against free speech until they need it.
Because waiting weeks for a result as some people are too lazy, benefits democracy?
Even more concerning is the behaviour of some parties targeting the homeless and vulnerable for a vote.
Left wing parties.
BTF please login to Troll Bot Service your algorithms are corrupted
No one is saying that NatACTNZF can’t do the same thing.
Especially as we then had to wait even longer after that result for Winston to decide who was actually going to govern.
With this flawed logic, then we shouldn’t allow overseas votes either?
Why overseas residents can vote here does seem bizarre.
Too stupid to register, to stupid to vote.
My thoughts exactly. I wonder what research they had done and how many met the candidates they went to .Most of the ones I went to had a sign up desk .
Might as well take “them” out and shoot “them” eh… I see the usual fascists are tainting the discussion here with their “the other” hate
Clearly they weren’t too stupid to vote because they did
Because the system bent over backwards to hold their hands through the entire process. A lot of money, time & effort goes into encouraging people to register & vote, in multiple languages, online or in person, but doing it on the day creates a whole heap of issues and just bogs everything down. If you actually cared, you would have taken care of it earlier.
Reading the comments thus far the sentiment seems this section of the electorate are simply lazy and ignorant and don’t deserve to vote. Now, that is undemocratic. Even if there were half truths in the first part and 100,000 odd can’t get organized to register before the day that doesn’t deny them their democratic right. The situation provides a window on who we are as a nation though. A whole bunch of eligible voters disengaged, many of them turning up on the day with a random two ticks. Or is their disengagement related more to distrust of the system and their vote on the day the result of a niggling conscience? The additional 100,000 (most likely more if turnout on the day is only 75% or so) who are more honest about their contempt don’t bother. Talk about lack of trust with msm. You can add lack of trust in polititians and the political system to that.
Maybe they were too busy running a Fortune 500 company and managing their work/life balance to register before Election Day? Maybe they only had a small window on election day to register & vote before flying out again to give a speech at the UN, after returning from bringing peace to the Middle East?
Rich people will do more than poor people to help the environment they have the most to lose.
https://www.oxfamamerica.org/press/press-releases/richest-1-emit-as-much-planet-heating-pollution-as-two-thirds-of-humanity/
Bob the genius got it wrong again ? ,, I can hardly believe it …
P.s Are you really a pom import Bob? ,,,, or was that just a rumor
The electoral commissions main role is to ensure the voting system has integrity and there other role should be to ensure as many New Zealanders as possible eligible to vote do so as this is true democracy. Any barriers that make it harder for people to vote needs to be eliminated. The special votes take a long time not just because of those voting on the day but because the process used requires checking systems to ensure those that do vote are eligible and haven’t double voted. And the overseas special votes also require the time to be checked.
I had many whanau members who registered online and when they went to check they were not registered, so this means the electoral commission need to get there act together. The CoC want to stop enrollment on the day, now why would you do this. People need to ask themselves who benefits from this change and what is the justification for not allowing more flexibility and increasing our democratic process. Far better to have more people engaged and participating in our political systems than for them to be disenfranchised. How long did it take the COC to negotiate to form the COC?
The electoral commissions main role is to ensure the voting system has integrity and there other role should be to ensure as many New Zealanders as possible eligible to vote do so as this is true democracy. Any barriers that make it harder for people to vote needs to be eliminated. The special votes take a long time, not just because of those voting on the day but because the process used requires checking systems to ensure those that do vote are eligible and haven’t double voted. And the overseas special votes also require the time to be checked properly. I had many whanau members who registered online and when they went to check they were not registered, so this means the electoral commission need to get there act together. The CoC want to stop enrolment on the day, now why would you do this. People need to ask themselves who benefits from this change and what is the justification for not allowing more flexibility and increasing our democratic process. Far better to have more people engaged and participating in our political systems than for them to be disenfranchised. How long did it take the COC to negotiate to form the COC?
Martyn – Yeah, Nah — NZ’s voting system is pretty good, apart from some small changes needed…leave it alone.
I’m more concerned that non-citizens are allowed to vote.
So much for our nation state – ‘our’ political class want to bus in folk ignorant enough to support them.
Too true.
In Australia enrolment for federal elections is compulsory for all citizens over 18 with a fixed address of one month or more. And I believe also compulsory to vote – although I don’t know what the penalty for non-compliance is. Point is: emphasis is on citizenship (although local body elections are more open). May be wrong but Permanent Residence, if it does indeed exist as a category in Australia, doesn’t count, unlike NZ where those with PR are eligible to vote. Good for democracy I can’t say but I suspect scrutiny of immigration and elections in NZ is bit like opening a can of worms.
Nah compulsory voting is going too far, I don’t wanna force people ignorant and/or uninterested in politics to make a decision
But I would go short of labelling immigrants with Permanent Residency as ‘ignorant’. I dare say it smacks of prejudice.
You’re only voting for the historically corrupt and racist Westminster System anyway.
If you want real change. Dont vote at all!
Yawn
Sleep well ya dozy prick.
Wonder if there is any demographic data of the 100,000 election-day enrolments? In a data-driven age there probably is.