{"id":632345,"date":"2026-10-16T11:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632345\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T11:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T11:10:09","slug":"election-2026-polling-stations-at-black-caps-and-auckland-fc-matches-ruled-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/632345\/","title":{"rendered":"Election 2026: Polling stations at Black Caps and Auckland FC matches ruled out"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cIn Wellington and Auckland, there are voting places in the CBD on election day. <\/p>\n

\u201cIn Wellington there is a voting place at the Railway Station near Hnry Stadium, and in Auckland there are voting places at the Sylvia Park Shopping Centre and three schools near the Go Media Stadium.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe Electoral Commission has confirmed polling booths will not be at Go Media Stadium for the New Zealand Derby or Hnry Stadium for the Black Caps’ ODI against India on election day. Photo \/ Photosport<\/p>\n

\u201cAll voting places on election day must be open by 9am and close at 7pm, which is one of the reasons why it\u2019s not practical to have a voting place at a stadium which will only be busy for part of the day. <\/p>\n

\u201cBut with so many voting places on the way, it will be easy for people to vote, and get to the game on time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Le Quesne encouraged voters to visit vote.nz to find the closest place to vote and opening times. <\/p>\n

Sport and Recreation Minister Mark Mitchell floated the idea of polling booths at Hnry Stadium<\/a> in June when he was asked about the Black Caps\u2019 ODI fixture. <\/p>\n

\u201cNicki [Russell] from New Zealand Cricket was teasing me about [the scheduling] on the way in,\u201d Mitchell said at the time.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t realise that [there was a clash].\u201d<\/p>\n

Auckland FC and New Zealand Cricket<\/a> spokesmen confirmed they had contacted the electoral commission and were keen to set up booths, but cited logistical issues for the plan not proceeding.<\/p>\n

A bumper day of sport and entertainment could be in store on election day<\/a>, with the Kiwis potentially playing in the Rugby League World Cup semi-finals on November 7 after opening their campaign with a 24-22 loss to the Kangaroos<\/a> in Sydney. <\/p>\n

Music fans have the choice of attending the High Tide music festival in Wellington\u2019s Waitangi Park, while those in Auckland have the chance to see Iron Maiden\u2019s 50th anniversary tour<\/a> at Spark Arena.<\/p>\n

Those looking to stay up late can also watch the All Blacks play Scotland at Murrayfield, with kickoff scheduled for 3.10am.<\/p>\n

Samuel Sherry<\/a> is a live news sport journalist for the New Zealand Herald, based in Auckland.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cIn Wellington and Auckland, there are voting places in the CBD on election day. \u201cIn Wellington there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":632346,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2246,95,1975,51,7022,42574,3019,5972,5903,26845,38984,661,13085,111,139,69,3111,125569,24684,213,2382,12418,1533,102],"class_list":["post-632345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-2246","tag-and","tag-at","tag-auckland","tag-black","tag-caps","tag-clash","tag-day","tag-election","tag-fc","tag-fixtures","tag-major","tag-matches","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-out","tag-polling","tag-ruled","tag-sports","tag-stadiums","tag-stations","tag-will","tag-with"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=632345"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/632345\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/632346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=632345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=632345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=632345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}