Election 2026

We’re coming up on re-election day

Nicola and I have once again been working at the coalface of democracy, working for the Electoral Commission to deliver New Zealand’s General Election. These come around every three years, and employ a lot of casual labour to make it work, both in the run-up to Election Day and afterwards. As always, the character who is the symbol of the election is a weird, orange man. Unlike America, we don't make him leader.

We were both called to interview, and spouted the usual nonsense to make them believe that we are normal, functioning adults capable of following a procedure. This was followed by the training, where our trainers asserted that there were more than fifty changes in procedures from the last time, so PAY ATTENTION AT THE BACK THERE! These changes are, however, infinitesimal, apart from the one biggie: you can no longer register to vote, and cast your vote, on Election Day. This is a change brought in by the governing coalition to help streamline the election process. Some people have cried “Foul!” over this, saying that people are being denied their democratic right to vote. It is pointed out to such people that (a) everyone has had three years (count ‘em!) to register to vote, and (b) no other country in the world has this lax attitude to voter enrolment, so get with the programme!

Nicola has been put on the Care Homes team, as she has experience dealing with people in such homes from her Driving Miss Daisy employment. She has worked at a different location each day. I, however, have been rostered into a Voting Place (which is the dumbed-down name they now give to what I know as a Polling Station), this time a bit closer to home at Ākau Tangi Sports Centre in Kilbirnie, a short 5-minute drive away. This is a popular place for sports, and many people take advantage of their presence there to cast their votes at the same time. Unlike most Voting Places, we were open in the evening (most close at 4pm) – to 6pm at the weekend, and then until 9pm on weekdays, albeit with a later opening time of 1pm. I have been issuing Ordinary and Special Votes to a background of sports noises, including the National Taekwondo Championship, as well as the more usual schools PE, netball, basketball, floorball, futsal, and football games going on well in to the evening.

On the big day, 7^th November, we arrived at 8:30am for a full days’ voting until 7pm. There were five of us issuing votes, with one doing Specials only, two of us doing Ordinary Votes only, and two doing both types. I was on the Ordinary team and issued nearly 150 votes during the day.

At the end of the day we reorganised the room for the count. We were covering three electorates, with candidate and party votes for each, so we had to do six counts. We also had to sort the Special Votes into their electorates so that they could be counted more efficiently at headquarters. The whole process is governed by the instructions in the manager’s manual. So we sat around the table and awaited instruction. We finished the count, and the manager called the results in to HQ. Finally we packed up, restored the room to its status quo ante, and went home to watch the rest of the results come in on’t telly.