The voting begins

Voting in New Zealand’s General Election began today, with the start of the Advance Voting period. It runs until Friday, September 19. Election Day itself is Saturday, September 20.

The video above from the Electoral Commission promotes early voting. It says: “if, for any reason, you can’t make it on Election Day, no worries—you can vote now!” What it doesn’t say is that this is the first year voters haven’t needed a reason for voting early. The Electoral Commission projects about 20% of voters will cast their votes during this period.

However, parties are promoting early voting, and several politicians voted today (not mentioned in the linked article, Greens Co-Leader Metiria Turei also voted today). So, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if more than 20% vote in the advance vote period.

This is part of attempts to increase voting rates, which have been slipping over the past several elections. The hope is that by making it easier to vote, more people will do so. An online voting pilot project is also to be trialled in a few years.

I think that anything that helps to make it easier for people to vote is a good thing. I hope a lot of people take advantage of the ability to vote early, I know that I will.

Information on where to vote early is on the Elections NZ website.

Related:
My post on Electoral Commission ads to get people to vote.