Your Election questions answered

1. When does offshore voting start? 

Overseas voting for the 2023 General Election starts on Wednesday 27 September. You won’t be able to vote or to get your voting papers before this date. Voting within New Zealand starts on Monday 2 October, and ends at 7pm on election day, Saturday 14 October. If you’re in New Zealand during this time you can vote at any voting place in the country.

2. How do I enrol to vote as an offshore Kiwi?

You must be enrolled to vote to receive your voting papers on the 27th. It’s easy to enrol or update your details online using your New Zealand driver’s licence, New Zealand passport or RealMe verified identity. To vote from overseas in the 2023 General Election, you need to enrol by midnight (NZ time), on Friday 13 October. You can enrol as an offshore Kiwi here.

3. What’s the easiest way to vote as an offshore Kiwi? 

The best way to vote from overseas is to download your voting papers from the Electoral Commission website, complete them, and then upload them. A link to download your voting papers will be available on this website from Wednesday 27 September. To download your voting papers, you must be enrolled. You may also be able to vote in person at an overseas voting place.

4. How do I find out where I can vote in person as an offshore Kiwi? 

You can find a list of available places to vote offshore here. Alternatively check with your local High Commission. Please note not every location will have in person voting available, voting online either electronically or by printing and scanning your election papers will be the easiest option for many people. 

5. How do I find out about the policies of different parties? 

Policy.nz is an independent website that lists all the different parties and their policies, you can search by key policies to compare what different parties views are and also look at parties and their members. Another great site is Vote Compass, using this tool you choose to agree or disagree with 30 statements about issues like health, education, the environment, and tax. Vote Compass will then analyse your answers with the policies of different parties and show you how similar they are to your own views. This site has been independently created and also lets you search parties by policy. To complete the Q&A use the last postcode you had in NZ. 

6. What are the critical dates and cut off? 

To vote from overseas in the 2023 General Election, you need to enrol by midnight (NZ time), Friday 13 October. You can enrol as an offshore Kiwi here. A link to download your voting papers will be available on the Electoral Commission website, from Wednesday 27 September.

7. How do I know if I am eligible – what changes have been made to ensure offshore Kiwi who could not come home during Covid are still eligible to vote? 

The rules about who can vote from overseas have changed. You can enrol and vote in the 2023 General Election from overseas if all the following statements are true: 

• You are 18 years or older 
• You’ve lived in New Zealand for more than 12 months continuously at some time in your life 
• You are one of the following: 

a New Zealand citizen who has been in New Zealand within the last 6 years 

a New Zealand permanent resident who has been in New Zealand within the last 4 years. 

After the 2023 General Election the eligibility criteria will change back to the previous settings of 3 years for New Zealand citizens and 12 months for New Zealand permanent residents. 

Enrolling from overseas is not compulsory – it’s your choice whether you enrol.

8. How can I follow debates and election news, including results from overseas? 

All of the main news networks have sites dedicated to the NZ election and most of these are not geo locked.  The below are a few to get you started. Please note not all content will be available in your area. 

TVNZ  – Your Vote 2023
Newshub – Decision 2023
NZ Herald – Election 2023
Stuff – Election 2023
The Spinoff – Election Live