Chris Hipkins says Electoral Commission failing to enrol voters ahead of controversial change
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Labour leader Chris Hipkins says he doesn’t think the Electoral Commission is doing enough to enrol voters ahead of a controversial change to voting laws at this year’s election.
Voters will no longer be able to enrol to vote or update their enrolment on election day or in the advance voting period, due to a law change made by Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith last year aimed at cutting down the number of “special votes”.
Hipkins said he had been concerned about the enrolment outreach of the Electoral Commission for several election cycles but it was particularly worrying now ahead of such changes.
“I don't think the Electoral Commission have done well on voter enrolment for several elections now. As a local MP, I'm still dealing with people all of the time who are not on the electoral roll and don't know that they're not on the electoral roll, and that is a failing by the Electoral Commission,” Hipkins said.
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He said that many people would arrive on election day expecting to vote, only to discover their ballots would not be counted because they were not on the roll — a change from previous years, when voters could turn up, cast a ballot and fix their enrolment at the same time. He added that this would no longer be possible.
Voters have been able to enrol or change their enrolment during the advance voting period for decades, and have been able to do so on election day since 2020.
At the last election around 230,000 voters either enrolled on the day or in the lead-up to the election. They would not have been allowed to do so under the proposed law.
The Electoral Commission itself has estimated that around 55,000 votes could be “disallowed” under the new law, up 11,000 in 2023. It estimated around 73,000 people could have their electorate votes disallowed but their party votes counted, as they were enrolled to vote but not at the proper address.
Chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne told The Post the Commission was about to launch a major enrolment campaign.
“The Electoral Commission is focused on ensuring that New Zealanders have enrolled and updated their details by midnight, October 25, so they are ready to vote in this year’s General Election,” Le Quesne said.
“In a few weeks’ time, we will be writing to 3.6 million New Zealanders and asking them to check their enrolment details are up to date and letting people know about the changes to enrolment this year.
“We have mobile enrolment teams in communities supporting people to enrol and check their details. Through the commission’s community education fund, we also provide small grants to local organisations so they can encourage their communities to enrol to vote.”
He said the recent campaign around the Māori electoral option had seen 18,571 enrolment updates and 6426 new enrolments.
Le Quesne noted that the commission had increased enrolment over time, from 92.6% of the eligible population enrolled in 2014 to 94.7% in 2023.
“In 2023, the final enrolment rate was 94.7%. In 2023, 83.9% of 18-29-years-old were enrolled to vote, up from 80.7% in 2020.“
Goldsmith has said he is confident the Electoral Commission will be able to get people enrolled, insisting that people will change their behaviour as a response to the changes, rather than simply not enrolling.
Labour has pledged to reverse the voting law changes if elected.