Michael Wright

elections. It was comfortably the largest proportion of any cohort in the report, although voting rates improved markedly for long-term migrants.

Perhaps like young voters, migrants are more concerned with getting their new lives in order before considering their place in the electoral process.

‘‘We should also remember [New Zealand] grants the right to vote to people after they have lived here for one year,’’ McMillan said.

‘‘This means that immigrants in [New Zealand] become eligible to vote much more quickly than immigrants in most other countries . . . And, we should also realise that rates of voting are actually higher here among recent immigrants than they are across the whole country in the United States and the UK. So, perhaps we aren’t doing too badly.’’

For the first time in more than 20 years, Jason Hodgson is thinking of voting. He voted once, soon after he turned 18 and hadn’t considered it again until The Press knocked on his door and asked if he cast his ballot.

He is the epitome of a dissatisfied voter. He has strong opinions on dairy farm stocking rates, the state of our waterways, 1080 poison, and increasing foreign investment in New Zealand, and is at a loss to find a politician or party he thinks will fix any of it.

‘‘I might vote this time. I think why not? What else can I do? I thought maybe not enough s...’s getting done because there’s too many people like me not voting.’’