According to media commentaries, the changes to New Zealand’s electoral enrollment process has disenfranchised hundreds of thousands of New Zealand voters-especially the 18-24 year old age group, from participating in the democratic process. Radio New Zealand report that “Opposition parties are raising concerns over what they call voter suppression by the government.”[i]

The New Zealand government changed voter enrollment rules with the passing of the Electoral Amendment Act in December 2025.  The Act requires all eligible voters to enroll 13 days before a general election. Under the old rule any eligible voter could enroll up to, and including on Election Day. The arguments for the change are somewhat spurious: efficiency, and the timely processing of voter registration. It was never a problem before the change, and given an election is only held every 3 years, a significant number of eligible voters always enrolled on polling day

In practical terms the change impacts the potential youth vote the most, because, it is estimated that after the October 25^th deadline for enrollment, at least 100,000 young New Zealanders will have turned 18. They cannot enroll on or before voting day, or vote in the upcoming election. They will have to wait until they are 21 years of age or older to vote in any future election.

Further, the change will also impact older adults who have traditionally waited until Election Day to enroll.  According to a One News report “Electoral data shows an increasing trend of late voter enrollment over the years. In 2023 an unprecedented number of more than 600,000 voters had to cast a special vote, mainly because they hadn’t enrolled by writ day, when the electoral rolls close. In total, 450,000 of those special votes were cast by voters who enrolled in the two week period before the election. That includes 110,000 voters who left their enrollment until Election Day. That’s nearly half a million votes which wouldn’t count this year under the new law changes. It’s enough to shift a general election result.”[ii]

This is a travesty of epic proportions, and seems not to worry most of the political parties campaigning, except Labour’s Chris Hipkins. He has said he’ll repeal the legislation if elected as the next Prime Minster. He’s described the change as “the most draconian restriction to people’s right to enroll to vote that we have ever seen.”[iii]

What is also significant in this election is that no political party has targeted the youth vote in a positive way. The ACT party has taken a punitive approach. Their leader, David Seymour, proposed a policy to reduce the training minimum wage for workers under 20 years old to 60% of the adult minimum wage.

The current government is punishing youth aged 18-19 years old, by withdrawing their unemployment benefits if they live with their parents who have a combined extremely modest annual income of $67,000 (NZ). This is despite the youth unemployment rate for 15-19 year olds hovering around 25.3%

Political participation and casting a vote is a fundamental right for all New Zealanders 18 years and older. That so many eligible voters have been denied the right to vote in the 2026 General Election should be a concern for every New Zealand citizen. The optics of it looks like voter suppression

[i] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1987931/opposition-parties-raise-concerns-over-what-they-say-is-voter-suppression

[ii] https://www.1news.co.nz/2026/10/16/how-the-new-enrolment-rules-could-affect-the-election-result/

[iii] https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/politics/1987931/opposition-parties-raise-concerns-over-what-they-say-is-voter-suppression