It is clear to me that National wants turnout to be as low as possible, and the lower the better.
Changes it made to the Electoral Act to stop voters from enrolling on election day is a travesty.
The official justification, that last election it took too long to deliver a result, was quickly contradicted by the Electoral Commission. The subtext, that if someone was to slack to enrol on time then they did not deserve to have a vote, was closer to the truth.
But as I said earlier it could be that 100,000 kiwis miss out on a vote and the proposed disenfranchisement breaches the Bill of Rights. And the benefit is that the parties will know their final standing only a few days earlier than otherwise.
This is an American Republic Party overt attempt to screw the electoral scrum for political advantage. This is a disgraceful attempt to gain advantage. The Government should be ashamed for enacting the proposal.
The stong perception that National wants to drive down turnout has been reinfirced by recent news that confirms that National adopted an election day which was not recommended by the Electoral Commission.
From Lillian Hanley at Radio New Zealand:
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon picked a “challenging” election date, despite the Electoral Commission favouring two other options, newly released advice shows.
Labour is accusing Luxon of “knowingly limiting turnout” by putting up another barrier to voting.
Advice seen by RNZ shows the commission described the chosen date of 7 November as “challenging, but manageable”, partly because advance voting would begin on a public holiday.
Two alternatives – 17 October and 21 November – around that time were considered “administratively more feasible”.
A range of dates in August and September were also more feasible.
Luxon was interviewed this morning on Morning Report on the news in what must be the weakest RNZ interview I have ever witnessed.
He was asked about the Electoral Commission advice and merely said that he had made a decision after considering advice from a number of sources.
He then blamed Labour for knowning about the election day from early this year, and asked why Labour is complaining now.
He should have then been asked about the advice itself, not about what Labour thought about it.
There was no follow up question, no drilling into the effect of the timing of the decision, just a meek acceptance by Ingrid Hipkiss of what he said.
Luxon also claimed that the Government was making voting as easy as possible which is an outright lie. If the Government wanted to make it as easy as possible it would allow election day enrolments.
Let us analyse the repercussions of the decision to go for November 7.
The most important thing to note is that the first day of voting is Labour Day. National is choosing to make poll workers work on Labour Day. And hope that all workers forget about voting on that day so that cumulative turnout is reduced.
I think we should propose on Labour day that this is the day all workers should go out to vote. Make a day of it. Acknowledge the importance of Labour Day to the working class. And make sure that as many people vote as possible to make sure this Government removed from office.
And as a reminder enrolments close on October 25 at midnight. You can enrol online here, or you can visit a local Postshop. Various Lavour campaigns are doing our best to help people enrol and if you need help contact your local candidate.