Since the beginning of the campaign, Labour and the Greens have blasted the coalition Government over the changes, framing the amendments as an attempt to suppress votes and disenfranchise Kiwis who plan to vote but are unaware of the new rules.
Luxon defended the change while campaigning yesterday, arguing people had been given plenty of time to enrol.
“They’ve had a year,” Luxon said.
Young people aged 18-24 made up nearly half of those not enrolled one day before the deadline. Photo / Michael Cunningham
“The change was announced by the Electoral Commission some time ago. There’s been lots of advance notice. There’s been lots of conversation about it. As I said, there’s been an inordinate amount of advertising.
“It’s pretty simple and easy to do. A democracy’s really special, don’t take it for granted.”
The latest enrolment figures released by the Electoral Commission show the number of eligible voters enrolled rose to 3,744,643 (92.4%) as of October 24 – an increase of 1136 from the day before.
Of the 307,991 eligible voters who remained unenrolled on October 23, almost half, or 43%, were aged 18 to 24.
While speaking to media in Wellington yesterday, Hipkins said that if enrolment fell short of the numbers recorded in 2023, it would be “an indictment on this Government who have deliberately tried to disenfranchise people, particularly those who are less likely to vote for them”.
He urged people to enrol before midnight “so that they can have their say”.
At Avondale Markets, Chlöe Swarbrick said her party had spent the morning reminding people of the midnight enrolment deadline and encouraging them to check their details.
The Greens co-leader said she found the latest numbers “really concerning”.
“What’s the most concerning of all is that Prime Minister Christopher Luxon knew that this was what was likely to happen when he made the very intentional changes to suppress voters,” Swarbrick said.
Swarbrick said the Government received official Cabinet advice acknowledging the systemic barriers to voting and that the changes were likely to disproportionately impact youth, renters, Māori, Pasifika and migrant communities.
“That is an intentional choice that the Government made … If you’re interested in democracy, there should never be any barriers put up in place.”
“Get enrolled” was Act leader David Seymour’s message to voters while campaigning on the North Shore ahead of the deadline.
“I say to people [who] say it’s all too difficult, ‘You know what, if you can manage to book your R&V tickets, then you can manage to enrol to vote,’” Seymour said.
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