Enrolment changes could have 'significant' impact on democratic participation

RNZ News

2 days ago

Photo:
NZ ELECTORAL COMMISSION
Justice officials say closing enrolments ahead of advance voting could result in lower turnout and reduce confidence in the electoral system.
And electoral law experts are also questioning why the changes need to stretch for the whole advanced voting period.
As part of a suite of Electoral Act changes,
same-day election enrolments are set to be scrapped
.
It reverses a change brought in for the 2020 election, which allowed for enrolments and updating details up to and including on election day.
It then goes even further, ensuring voters have to enrol or update their details before advance voting begins. The government is also legislating to require 12 days of advance voting.
The changes are primarily being made to improve the timeliness of the official vote count, and so give voters certainty of a result.
The growth in the number of special votes has been putting a strain on processing a result, with the timeframe for a final vote count stretching into three weeks at the last election.
The justice minister said the uncertainty could be avoided if more people enrolled in a timely manner.
"We never know what the circumstances are going to be after an election," Paul Goldsmith said.
"We don't know what pressure the country will be under. An extra week, extra two weeks, if we do nothing could be longer, then that just creates extra uncertainty that we can easily avoid by people enrolling in a timely fashion."
In its
Regulatory Impact Statement
(RIS), the Ministry of Justice did not recommend the option of closing enrolment earlier.
"Its impact on reducing special votes is uncertain, while its impact on democratic participation could be significant," officials said.
Special votes take much longer to process than a standard vote, as they need to go through a lot more scrutiny.
Officials noted a positive aspect of closing enrolments earlier was it would mean enrolment processing was done by the close of polling, allowing special vote counting to begin promptly.
The ministry acknowledged there was value in a timely and smooth transfer of power following an election, but it was uncertain whether any package of changes could reduce the count timeframes.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith.
Photo:
RNZ / Mark Papalii
The RIS acknowledged the growth of special votes in both volume and as a proportion of the total number of votes, with the largest proportion being those who were not enrolled or needed to update their details.
About 300,000 to 350,000 people cast a special vote because they were not enrolled, or not enrolled at the correct address by writ day, or on the dormant roll.
Māori, Asian, and Pasifika communities, as well as younger people, are more likely to cast special votes.
"This option will create a barrier to participation and may be seen as a step backwards for accessibility, in light of changes to enable greater participation over recent elections. Closing enrolment earlier could harm confidence and trust if people are not able to vote because they missed the deadline or if more votes are disallowed," officials said.
At the 2020 election, the rules were changed to allow people to enrol to vote on election day, as they have been able during the advanced voting period since the 1990s.
It was a response to what the then-government said was 19,000 voters feeling "disenfranchised" by being turned away in 2017.
Goldsmith did not believe the new bill would mark a return to that disenfranchisement.
"We've got to balance the fact that we want to have an outcome of an election in a timely manner. It does actually matter if we have an uncertain outcome. People don't start coalition negotiations until they know the final outcome, and if that's drifting into four weeks than that creates more uncertainty."
Electoral law expert Graeme Edgeler doubted the changes would prevent people from knowing the outcome of an election, as the Election Night result usually gave a good indication of the makeup of the next government.
"Two weeks or three weeks, does it really matter? There's nothing stopping the politicians who look like they've been elected from negotiation before the final special votes are out," he said.
"The results, we know they tended to change one or two seats or something like that. The time delay just doesn't seem like a particularly good reason for this."
Electoral law expert Graeme Edgeler.
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Edgeler did not think removing the ability to enrol on election day would not make too much of a difference, as it had only been in place for two elections.
But he was concerned at closing the enrolment period before advanced voting started.
"Requiring people to have a think about the election two weeks before the actual vote happens is probably more of a big change than the same-day enrolments."
On Election Day 2023, 110,000 people enrolled or updated their details.
Labour's justice spokesperson Duncan Webb questioned whether the trade-off to get votes counted faster was worth it.
"Counting the vote took an extra week, last election. I think 110,000 votes are worth it. I think every single New Zealander is entitled to have a voice in who represents them in this place. If it takes another week, that's OK by me because democracy is worth waiting for," he said.
Celia Wade-Brown, the Green Party's spokesperson for democracy and electoral reform, said it would lead to fewer people participating in democracy.
"This government is reducing the number of people, particularly those who are mobile, who move around, who change addresses, and preventing them from voting. This should be a government for all New Zealanders."
Labour Party justice spokesperson Duncan Webb.
Photo:
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Opposition parties were not consulted on the Electoral Act changes.
University of Otago law professor Andrew Geddis said some parts of electoral law, such as changing the voting age or the term of Parliament, were protected by entrenchment provisions, requiring a 75 percent majority of MPs or a referendum.
Everything else was left to a simple majority of votes in Parliament like any other piece of legislation.
"Because the government has a majority in Parliament, if it wants to do this, it can. It's just a question of whether it's the right thing to do," he told
Checkpoint
.
"Democracy is more than just what a current government wants it to be. It has to be, what is the best rules for our polity, us as a group, to choose our leaders."
Geddis said the growth in special votes had been causing strain, but questioned why the government had taken this option.
"The government's response has essentially been to bring down a guillotine and say, 'well tough.' All of those people who haven't enrolled or changed their details before voting starts, 'tough. Your votes just won't count. We're just not going to listen to you.'"
While officials did not recommend closing the enrolment period, they were in favour of introducing automatic enrolment updates.
This option has formed part of Goldsmith's package of reforms, and would allow the Electoral Commission to update people's enrolment details using data from other government agencies.
The option would make it easier for electors to keep enrolments up to date, and reduce the number of special votes over time.
It was something Edgeler was in favour of.
"Allowing the government to do the work for you in that area, you've told one government department you've moved and got a new address, allowing that to be used for election purposes as well will hopefully mean that fewer people need to update their enrollment details during the election period itself."
He said there would need to be a significant publicity campaign from the Electoral Commission reminding people of the deadlines.
While that would be up to the Electoral Commission in how that was communicated, Goldsmith said they had received more funding at the Budget.
"Their core role up to now is to encourage people to enrol. But they've also been saying 'but by the way, you don't really need to, you can just rock up and enrol on election day.'
"And so we've now got a clear message: get yourself organised, get enrolled, make sure you're enrolled before election day starts."