Table of Contents

Are you eligible to enrol and vote?

Are you 17 years old?

Are you a permanent resident?

Are you Australian, Niuean, Tokelauan, or a Cook Islander?

Are you overseas?

Are you a public servant or member of the New Zealand Defence Force?

Are you on remand, home detention, or serving a community-based sentence?

Are you homeless?

Who is not eligible to enrol and vote?

Landmarks

Are you eligible to enrol and vote?

You're eligible to enrol and vote if you are 18 years or older, a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, and you've lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months or more at some time in your life.

If you're eligible, you must enrol. Enrolling and voting means you can have a say on the issues that affect you. In October this year, you can vote in the 2020 General Election and two referendums.

Are you 17 years old?

If you're 17, you can fill out an enrolment form now. On your 18th birthday, we'll automatically enrol you and you'll be ready to vote. Easy. 

Are you a permanent resident?

For electoral purposes, you are a permanent resident if you're in New Zealand legally and not required to leave within a specific time.

You're eligible to enrol and vote if you're a permanent resident and have lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months or more.

Are you Australian, Niuean, Tokelauan, or a Cook Islander?

You can enrol and vote once you've lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months or more.

Are you overseas?

You can enrol and vote 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's visited New Zealand within the last 3 years

a New Zealand permanent resident who's visited New Zealand within the last 12 months.

Your electorate will be where you last lived for 1 month or more.

Enrolling from overseas is not compulsory — it's your choice whether you enrol. 

Are you a public servant or member of the New Zealand Defence Force?

If you're in one of the following groups of people, you're eligible to enrol and vote no matter how long you've been outside New Zealand:

public servants working overseas and their families

New Zealand diplomats or trade representatives and their families

members of the New Zealand Defence Force and their families.

Are you on remand, home detention, or serving a community-based sentence?

If you’re on remand, home detention, serving a community-based sentence, or you are serving a sentence of imprisonment of less than 3 years in a New Zealand prison, and you meet the eligibility criteria at the top of this page, you can enrol to vote.

Help is available if you can't get to a voting place. You can find more information in accessible formats on our website vote.nz or by calling 0800 36 76 56 to talk over your options. 

Are you homeless?

If you are homeless at the moment, you can enrol at the address where you spend a substantial part of your time. You can also enrol at the last residential address where you lived for at least 1 month, even if that was some time ago.

When you enrol to vote, you'll need to provide a postal address where electoral mail, such as enrolment confirmations, can be sent. The postal address could be a PO Box, or the address of a friend, family member, church or support group, but it needs to be someone who will agree to hold your mail for you to collect.

Who is not eligible to enrol and vote?

You're not eligible to enrol and vote if any of the following statements are true:

you're a New Zealand citizen who has not been in New Zealand within the last 3 years

you're a permanent resident of New Zealand who has not been in New Zealand within the last 12 months

you have to leave New Zealand by a set date, such as a date on a student, work, or visitor permit

you're serving a prison sentence of 3 or more years in a New Zealand prison

you've been in a psychiatric hospital for over 3 years after being charged with a criminal offence

you've been convicted of a corrupt practice and added to the Corrupt Practices List.

If you're unsure about your eligibility, call 0800 36 76 56 or talk to your local registrar of electors.