Voting in the 2023 General Election will be underway soon, with overseas voting starting tomorrow Wednesday 27 September and voting places opening in New Zealand next Monday 2 October.

Overseas voting

Voters who are overseas can vote from Wednesday 27 September until 7pm on election day, Saturday 14 October NZ time. About 78,000 enrolled voters have an overseas address.

“If you’re travelling or based overseas, you can still vote in the election. The easiest way to vote from overseas is to download your voting papers from vote.nz and return them by upload to the website. In 2020, more than 90% of overseas voters used this service,” says Karl Le Quesne, Chief Electoral Officer.

“There are also 74 locations overseas where New Zealanders can vote in person, including 10 voting places in Australia.”

More information on voting from overseas, including the locations of voting places and the times they are open, can be found at vote.nz/overseas.

Telephone dictation voting

Telephone dictation voting also opens on Wednesday 27 September for people who are blind, partially blind, or have a physical disability that means they cannot mark their voting paper without help. You need to register to use this service. More information is available at vote.nz/telephone-dictation-voting.

Voting places open Monday 2 October

Voting in New Zealand starts on Monday 2 October and will close at 7pm on election day, Saturday 14 October.

“Voting places will be open before election day in convenient locations including shopping areas, transport hubs, kura, marae, community halls and sports clubs, to make it easy for people to vote as they go about their daily lives,” says Karl Le Quesne.

“Voting before election day, also known as advance voting, has increased in popularity over the years. In 2020, 68% of votes were cast before election day.

“More than 400 voting places will be open on Monday 2 October. That number will increase as we head towards election day. The days and hours voting places are open before election day vary, so check before you go to vote.”

You can find your nearest voting place on a map online at vote.nz or by calling 0800 36 76 56.

“On election day Saturday 14 October, more than 2,300 voting places will be open from 9am to 7pm.”

“If you were enrolled by 10 September, you should get an EasyVote pack in the mail which includes a list of your local voting places. It also includes an EasyVote card which will make voting faster at the voting place,” says Karl Le Quesne.

It’s not too late to enrol to vote in this year’s election. Eligible voters can fill out an enrolment form and vote at the same time at any voting place, including on election day.

More information on voting in this year’s election is available online at vote.nz.

An update on how many people have voted each day will be available at about 2pm daily from Tuesday 3 October at https://vote.nz/2023-general-election/resources/voting-statistics

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