I traveled 80km to vote in the NZ General Election — and here’s why!

5 min readOct 9, 2023

If you’ve read my stuff for a while now, you know I love a little quest. I went to all of Wellington’s Mojo Cafes in one day a couple months back. I scootered 40km across Auckland in one day in May. I also plan to ride every bus route in Wellington in one day at some point soon.

But this week’s little quest is the most important one I’ve ever done.

I traveled 80km to vote in New Zealand’s General Election.

An orange New Zealand voting sign that reads WĀHI PŌTI.

Now, I did not need to do that. There’s a voting place four minutes walk from my house, and another one at my workplace.

But I did it to prove a point.

(And also because I absolutely won’t have the chance on Saturday.)

New Zealand has had people screaming about voter fraud for the last few years now. Seemingly spurred on by anti-lockdown protests in 2020, there have been calls by a section of the particularly cooked right-wing that Labour rigged the election.

Even just this week, ol’ mate Winston Peters — unfortunately looking like he’ll be the kingmaker of this year’s leccy — implied that some rural voting places only being open for advance voting and not on Election Day is an “attack on the right to vote”, rather than… just something the Electoral Commission does every voting year; to move staff where they need them for Election Day as they have a finite amount.

As someone who worked at the last election, I was working in advance voting in Hataitai in Wellington, then was moved to the middle of goddamn nowhere in Strathmore Park for Election Day itself.

This shiz happens. But I digress.

I voted in Martinborough to prove the springiness of the New Zealand General Election voting system, which is a thing of beauty.

I was planning on voting in Cape Palliser, at the most remote voting place in mainland Aotearoa. There is a voting place in Ngawi (a fishing village/holiday spot with about 20 permanent inhabitants), but it’s impossible to get there without a car — so Martinborough, which is decently remote and a train + bus ride from my home in Wellington, sufficed.

After travelling for nearly two hours, and spending $17 on my Snapper , I made it to Martinborough, whose only advance voting booth is in the Town Hall, conveniently right next to the bus stop. They’ve got a second one opening elsewhere in the township on Election Day, as well as one down the road in Kahutara, one in Pirinoa, two in Featherston, and the aforementioned in Ngawi.

I cannot articulate how littered this country is with voting booths — there’s over 2600! Even if you’re along the East Coast of the North Island, in the depths of Fiordland, wandering the beaches around Cape Reinga or on one of New Zealand’s outlying islands, there’s places for you to vote in person.

Not in NZ, but eligible? No worries — download your papers online or vote at an overseas booth!

Have accessibility issues or can’t get to a voting place? No worries, you can cast a vote over the telephone, get someone to collect your papers, or in a variety of other ways.

Out of the electorate you’re enrolled in during the voting period/on election day? Cast a Special Vote!

Not enrolled? Cast a Special Vote as well!

It is basically impossible to walk the streets of any settlement in this country at the moment without hitting an orange voting sign or a series of smiling election workers, beckoning you into a community hall to cast your vote.

So in Martinborough, that’s what I did.

As I was voting out of electorate (I was in the Wairarapa/Ikaroa-Rawhiti electorates), I had to cast a Special Vote. Unlike a normal vote in your home electorate, casting a Special Vote takes slightly longer — you have to fill out an additional piece of paper so the Electoral Commission can check you off your home voting roll; they ask you for your address, full name, things like that, before sealing that document in an envelope and giving you the correct voting paper for your own electorate.

This only takes a little longer than the usual voting process. It’s all very easy, and there’s a team of lovely electorate workers to help you on your way. This is my third election of four where I’ve cast Special Votes — for various reasons I was out of electorate in 2014 and 2017, and it truly isn’t any more hassle than doing a normal ballot.

I ticked my boxes, sealed my Special Vote paper into its envelope, and popped it into the Special Vote box, ready to be counted amongst all of its friends. Easy as pie, all wrapped up in five minutes. Wandering out into the sun felt a bit like a liberation.

This election has sucked for everyone, I think. All of it has been infighting, conspiracists, deaths and dramas, and I’ve been truly fatigued by it all, but casting my vote plucked that weight from my shoulders. Nothing more I can do, all there is now is to wait and see how things unfold.

We are lucky, in this country.

Voting isn’t controlled or gerrymandered or suppressed. It’s not just men, or landowners, or people with wealth who are allowed to decide on our government. We don’t have to argue with our bosses to get time out of our jobs to go to a polling booth on one specific day, carry elaborate ID, or queue for hours to tick a box.

It is a privilege to vote and know that you won’t get forced by a political party to vote in their interests; a privilege to vote unopposed, to vote unchallenged.

It is a privilege that people in the past fought for us to have.

MMP might have its issues, and this country might have some deeply insane candidates vying for Parliament this year, but our voting system is one that does its job incredibly well, has checks and balances to stop election fraud or electioneering, and stands up to scrutiny.

Today I voted in Martinborough ’cause I knew I could. I was certain there’d be the chance for me to do so, even if I hadn’t been enrolled, even if I hadn’t brought my EasyVote card. Can’t say that about a lot of other places, can you?

Don’t waste this chance. Cast your vote before, or on October 14.

I traveled 80km to vote in the NZ General Election — and here’s why!

How to vote resources

Written by Emma Maguire

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