New election date won’t be shifting
Reaction, and what it means for you
At 10am yesterday, teenagers Alex Frechtling, Patrick Doughty and Clive Hook-Pomare couldn’t vote in the upcoming election. Ten minutes later, that had changed.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s shifting of election day from September 19 to October 17, means Year 13 Napier Boys’ High School students Alex Frechtling, Patrick Doughty and Clive Hook-Pomare, whose birthdays fall between the dates, will be allowed to vote for the first time.
Frechtling comes from a family of voters, and was watching the Prime Minister’s announcement in study time at school.
In the Napier electorate, where Labour MP Stuart Nash is seeking reelection, Frechtling, who turns 18 on October 3 and also has an older sister voting for the first time, said: “I like politics. I have been pretty interested ever since I first found out about how it works.”
He had already had an idea which party he might vote for, had he already been a registered elector. But now he is, he will take time to find out about the candidates and the parties.
Doughty, who turns 18 on September 26, said: “It will be good to have a say. It opens up another option.”
He said he will now make more effort to be better informed.
Labour Party Ikaroa-Rawhiti MP Meka Whaitiri, whose Maori electorate stretches from East Cape through Hawke’s Bay to Wairarapa, believes it will also throw a light on the election for those who had already become eligible, but who might not have realised the right they have to play a role in the future governance of the country.
The people she calls “the missing voters”, who were on the roll in the electorate at the last election but did not vote, numbered over 11,000. Just as many might not be on the roll and it’s likely most aged 18 to 24 years are in the throes of only their first or second election.
Anyone aged 18 or over on election day is entitled to vote. While they must be on the roll, legislation now makes it possible for new-voter registration on the day.
“I’m a big supporter for getting our young people to enrol and out to vote,” she said. “Our voting shows the greatest turnouts are in the over 65s, over 80 per cent, but the 18-24 years are at something like 52 per cent.”
National Party Napier electorate challenger Katie Nimon was one of those who just missed out when her party swept into office in 2008. Her 18th birthday was just after that year’s November election.
Nimon learned of the new date yesterday while she was at the bank — “the same time as everyone else” — and accepts it was a case of going with the flow.
But she says that, at a time when the public is looking for help, it allows another four weeks to get to know and support people.
“It’s quite exciting,” she said. New Conservative Napier candidate Deborah Burnside said the opportunity for young people was “awesome” for those showing more interest, and appreciated that it’s a “good news” situation emerging from the Covid-19 crisis which forced the decision to change the date.
She was the first candidate to show her hand in the Napier race for 2020, and said it had been disappointing several campaign events had to be cancelled.
“I have been campaigning the whole time anyway.”
The biggest other event in Hawke’s Bay on polling day is racing’s Livamol Spring Classic, the richest race in Hastings and expected to attract one of the biggest crowds. But chief executive Darin Balcombe says there are no plans to have polling booths on course on a day which already has high racing and general public interest.
The Hawke’s Bay Magpies currently have a Mitre 10 Cup match scheduled for Napier on the eve of polling day.