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If you're Māori and you're enrolled to vote, we recently sent you a letter about the choice between the Māori roll and the general roll.

Your Māori Electoral Option letter

If you're happy with the roll you're on, you don't need to do anything - your roll type won't change unless you tell us to change it.

If you want to change your roll, you can do it online, or by completing and returning the form we sent you.

Māori Electoral Option

Māori Electoral Option

We sent reminder emails and texts to voters of Māori descent about the deadline to change electoral rolls before this year’s general election.

If you are Māori and you gave us your email address or mobile number when you enrolled or updated your details, we sent you a reminder by email or text about the 6 August deadline to change rolls.

We didn’t send you a reminder if you’ve changed rolls in the last 60 days.

A small batch of emails will be sent on 29 June. The bulk of emails and texts will be sent from 6 to 19 July and 21 to 24 July.

Notice of emails from the Electoral Commission

If you received an email or text message and you have further questions please contact us using the form on this page or call 0800 36 76 56.

To vote in the 2026 General Election, you need to be enrolled.

If you enrol by Writ Day, Sunday 4 October, we will send you an EasyVote card which will make voting faster and easier. If you provide us with your email address, we'll send this card to you by email.

You can't enrol or update your details for the 2026 General Election after midnight, 25 October 2026.

It's easy to enrol, check or update your enrolment details.

You can enrol or update your details online with your NZ passport, NZ driver licence, or verified RealMe ID.

Enrol or update online

You can enrol or update without ID by filling out an enrolment form online and having it sent to you to sign and return, or by downloading a blank enrolment form (or having one mailed to you).

Other ways to enrol

If you can't find your enrolment in our online search, it doesn't necessarily mean you're not enrolled.

Some possibilities include:

• The details you've provided don't exactly match our records
  If there's a small difference between the information we have on file and the information you’ve entered, the search might not find you. This can sometimes be due to your browser autofilling information in the wrong fields, or may also be due to spelling or formatting.
• You’ve enrolled recently
  If you’ve recently enrolled or updated your details you won’t be able to see your details online straight away. It takes time for us to manually check and process enrolments. We’ll be in touch once your enrolment has been processed.
• You’re on the dormant roll
  If you’ve moved addresses since you last updated your enrolment, you may have been placed on the dormant roll. You need to update your address with us to find yourself in the search.
• You’re on the unpublished roll
  If you’ve chosen to go on the unpublished roll, you won’t be able to search for your details. You can contact our unpublished roll team on unpublished.roll@elections.govt.nz

If you have any concerns about your enrolment please contact us so our enrolment team can investigate for you.

Troubleshooting your enrolment

If you're Māori, you can choose to go on either the Māori roll or the general roll.

When you're enrolling to vote for the first time, you choose which roll you want to be on.

You can change your roll type at any time, except:

• in the 3 months before a general election
• in the 3 months before local elections which are held every 3 years
• before a parliamentary by-election if the change would move you into the electorate where the by-election is being held.

To change rolls in time for the 2026 General Election, you need to make your choice by midnight, 6 August 2026.

How to make your choice

Under the Electoral Act 1993, election advertising may be published at any time, except on election day.

Election signs (elections.nz)

Councils may have their own rules about the placement of election signs. If you have questions or concerns about the placement of election signs in your area, you can contact your local council.

We provide information on enrolling, voting and elections in six mita (regional dialects) to connect with voters across the motu.

Resources communities can share are produced in the mita of Te Ātiawa, Ngā Puhi, Waikato–Tainui, Ngāti Porou, Te Arawa, and Kaī Tahu/Ngaī Tahu.

In recognition of one of the mana whenua groups, key information from our national office in Wellington Te Whanganui a Tara uses the mita of Te Ātiawa, including the glottal stop (' replaces h).

You can view the results of past parliamentary elections at the New Zealand Election Results website.

New Zealand Election Results (electionresults.govt.nz)

There are two types of votes at a general election: ordinary votes and special votes.

If your name is on the printed electoral roll at the voting place when you go to vote, you’ll cast an ordinary vote.

If your name is not on the printed electoral roll at the voting place, you’ll cast a special vote.

You might not be on the printed electoral roll at the voting place you go to vote at if:

• you’re voting from outside your electorate (or from overseas)
• you’re on the unpublished roll
• you enrolled after Writ Day (4 October 2026).

Both sorts of votes are worth the same when it comes to the final result!

The only real difference is that if you’re making a special vote, you’ll need to fill out an extra form. This means it may take you a little bit longer to complete your vote at a voting place.

Special votes are counted during the official count. Before special votes are counted, we check each voter is enrolled.

You cannot enrol or update your details for the 2026 General Election after midnight, 25 October.

If you’ve changed your address but haven’t let us know, or if you’ve never enrolled to vote, you may have received a letter asking “Are you enrolled at your current address?”. If you receive this letter, you may need to enrol or update your enrolment.

You can enrol or update online, or give us a call on 0800 36 76 56.

Find out how to make a request to us under the Official Information Act (OIA)