New Zealand Government Bans Last-Minute Voting and Free Food at Polling Stations Through Controversial Law Change
New Zealand's Government has officially passed controversial electoral law changes that will fundamentally alter how citizens participate in future elections. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith shepherded the Electoral Amendment Bill through Parliament's final hurdle on Tuesday night, with the Government using urgency procedures to expedite the process and requiring MPs to remain late into the evening to consider the legislation.
The new law introduces a range of sweeping changes to electoral procedures. The threshold for anonymous donations to political parties has been increased from $5000 to $6000, allowing larger donations to be made without publicly disclosing the donor's identity. A previous ban on prisoners voting has been reinstated, reversing a policy that had allowed prisoners serving sentences of less than three years to cast votes in elections.
Most controversially, the law makes it illegal to provide free food or entertainment within 100 meters of any voting station. This provision could effectively criminalize the tradition of Democracy Sausages—sausage sizzles that typically appear near polling stations as fundraisers. Anyone providing free goods near polling stations faces a fine of up to $10,000 under the new legislation.
The law also introduces automatic enrolment updates, allowing the Electoral Commission to update voter registration details using data from other government agencies. However, the most significant restriction comes through a new 13-day pre-election enrolment deadline. Previously, New Zealanders could enrol to vote on election day itself. Under the new law, this flexibility has been eliminated entirely, and voters can no longer update their address during the final two weeks before an election.
The Electoral Commission warned the Government that these changes would have substantial consequences for voter participation. The commission estimated that the 13-day enrolment closure could block approximately 55,000 people from casting their votes. An additional 72,000 people would be unable to update their address during that critical two-week period if they had moved house or discovered they were enrolled in the wrong electorate.
The Electoral Commission also directly challenged the Government's stated rationale for the changes. Justice Minister Goldsmith claimed the law would speed up the vote counting process, arguing that last-minute enrolments had been counted as special votes, which required additional processing time. However, the Electoral Commission's analysis concluded that the enrolment deadline would not actually expedite vote counts, contradicting the minister's justification for the change.
Opposition from Labour was substantial and vocal. Labour MPs characterized the legislation as an assault on democratic principles. They condemned the use of urgency procedures to rush through what they described as fundamental restrictions on voting rights. Labour justice spokesperson emphasized concerns that hundreds of thousands of people could find themselves unable to vote in future elections as a result of these changes.
Justice Minister Goldsmith dismissed criticism from Labour, characterizing their concerns as exaggerated. He defended the 13-day enrolment deadline by drawing comparisons to Australia, where voters must be enrolled 26 days before an election. However, what Goldsmith did not mention was that Australia has maintained its own parallel tradition to preserve access to food at polling stations—the Democracy Sausage continues to be a celebrated part of Australian election day culture, funded through voluntary donations rather than government provision.
Under New Zealand's new law, any attempt to distribute free sausages or other food items near polling stations during an election would constitute a criminal offence, fundamentally altering the character of election day participation and community engagement that has characterized New Zealand voting in the past.