Andrew Geddis: Otago University Electoral Law Expert on the potential changes to voting and electoral day enrolments

A belief changes to electoral day enrolments addresses slow administrative process and voter slackness.  

The Government's looking to ban prisoner votes, stop free food and entertainment at voting stations, and enforce a 13-day pre-election enrolment rule to vote. 

Otago University Electoral Law Expert Andrew Geddis told Mike Hosking same day enrolments require people to cast 'special votes', which take longer to process. 

He says the number of special votes has been increasing markedly over recent elections, so it's taking longer to get a result. 

Geddis denies the changes are deliberately aimed at negatively impacting the left. 

He says that special votes always result in more seats for the left, but whether or not that's a driving motivation behind the change is debatable.  

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Some significant electoral reform to be unveiled before we vote
next time, the major one being you need to be
enrolled thirteen days before the election. Andrew get us electoral
law expert of course at a Tiger Uni is with us.
Andrew morning, Yeah, good morning, MIKEE. Is this an admission
over our lack of administrative ability or the slackness of voters?

Speaker 2 (00:18):
A little bit of both. So, if someone isn't on
the printed electoral role come election time, they have to
cast what's called a special vote, and the number of
special votes have been increasing markedly over recent elections. Those
special votes take a lot longer to process, and so
that means it's taking longer to actually get a final

(00:39):
election result. So a combination of all of that has
led the government to say, well, we'll cut the number
of special votes by essentially stopping a whole lot of
people who aren't on the elector role from being able
to vote at all. That will reduce a number of
special votes, It'll make it quicker to get an election result. Right.

Speaker 1 (00:55):
Anything else in there that's unusual, I mean this food thing.
Has that been a major Well, it's.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
Really goes back to Monae and Maria at the last
election where there were concerns raised about Departu Mari's involvement,
et cetera. So again the government has said, Look, the
easiest and quicker solution for us is just to stop
people being able to give out food. I you know,
I don't know how much it happens anyway, but it's
going to take away the ability to turn opinion polling

(01:23):
places of the kind of places of celebration. You just
have to go there, vote, go away. No one's allowed
to make you feel of it.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Actually, you're the man who can answer this question. If
the Serious Fraud Office found something gargantuan at that election
and there was fraud galore, do we have a mechanism
in this country to have a re election?

Speaker 2 (01:41):
No? Not. Now you could only have an election petition,
which is where you challenge an election thirty days after
the election is over. So you could argue that, but
again the politicians who've made the rules have said that
they want to short window in which their elections can

(02:02):
be challenged. If you don't challenge within thirty days, that's it. Now.

Speaker 1 (02:05):
Your line about this favoring the right as opposed to
the left is the demonstrative proof on that.

Speaker 2 (02:11):
Well, if you just look at the special vote results
right after special votes are counted, they always produce more
seats for the left. I mean, that's just a fat.
This will result in fewer special votes that you know,
it's just a fat. Whether or not it's what's causing
the change that's more debatable. I really doubt it is.

(02:32):
But you know, it's a nice change that helps the right,
so of course you know they're going to quite like it.

Speaker 1 (02:37):
Nice to talk to you. Have a good weekend, Andrew,
get an electoral law expert. For more from the mic
Asking Breakfast, listen live to news talks. It'd be from
six am weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.