Make your voice count on election day

Voters have until Friday, September 22 to enrol. All New Zealand citizens and permanent residents aged 18 or older are required by law to enrol, although voting is not compulsory. Voters can enrol either online at elections.org.nz, by free texting 3676, calling 0800 36 76 56, visiting facebook.com/ivoteNZ or by visiting their nearest Post Shop. Voters working on election day are legally entitled to have time away from work to go and vote. Employees who do not have a reasonable opportunity to vote before starting work on election day must be allowed to leave their work to vote no later than 3pm for the remainder of the day. Employers are not able to make deductions from their pay for the time taken off and face up to a $1000 fine for failing to comply. About 400 advance voting places will be open from September 11, and about 2500 voting places across the country will be open. Voters must vote within their electorate or cast a special vote if they are not in their electorate. Voting booths can be found on the elections website, elections.org.nz. There is a dictation voting service for those who are blind, partially blind, or have a physical disability that prevents them marking their ballot paper without assistance. More information is at elections.org.nz Between 9am-7pm on election day. The busiest time is usually between 9am-11am. Voters have two votes to cast on their ballot paper: one for the candidate they would most like to represent their electorate and one for the political party they would like elected to Parliament. Advance voting began on September 11. Those overseas have also been able to vote from September 6. Booths can be found on the elections website, elections.org.nz, or freephone 0800 36 76 56. Voters who can’t get to a designated voting booth on election day can either vote in advance, or cast a special vote by filling out a declaration form. You can find the form at elections.org.nz. These aim to make voting easier and faster. You will receive an EasyVote pack in the post if you were enrolled by August 23. Voters who do not have an EasyVote card can use a letter from the Electoral Commission or tell polling staff their full name and address. It is the vote to choose the local member of Parliament for the electorate you live in. The party vote is added up across the country and decides how many MPs each party gets and which can form a Government. That is up to you. Some people split their votes because the person they want as their local MP might not be from the party they want in charge of the country. To get MPs into Parliament a party must either get at least 5 per cent of the party vote or one of its candidates must win an electorate seat. If a party gets 10 per cent of the party vote, it will have 10 per cent of the total MPs in Parliament — about 12 MPs. Each party ranks its candidates in a list and the list determines who goes into Parliament if the party vote is higher than the number of MPs who win electorates. For example, if a party wins 10 per cent of the votes across the country, it is entitled to about 12 seats in a 120-seat Parliament. If it wins only two electorate seats, the other eight MPs would come from the list. If No 1 and 3 on the list had won the electorate seats, the first list MP from that party would be No 2 and next would be No 4. The party keeps the electorate seats and the size of Parliament is extended. It is called an overhang. In the last Parliament, there were 121 MPs — United Future leader Peter Dunne was the ‘overhang’ because he won the Ohariu seat but United Future’s party vote was too low to give it a seat. It would get no MPs and the party votes would not count in determining the make-up of Parliament. The party or parties together that can advise the Governor-General they can get more than 50 per cent support to pass future confidence and supply votes (eg passing a Budget) will become the Government.