TĀIKI Ē! COMMUNITY-LED CAMPAIGN RACES TO GET WHĀNAU ENROLLED BEFORE ELECTION DEADLINE

A nationwide grassroots campaign is mobilising communities across Aotearoa to get people enrolled and ready to vote, with ActionStation Director Kassie Hartendorp of Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Tūwharetoa warning Election 2026 will be fought under significantly different enrolment rules.

Hartendorp is helping lead Together for the Vote, a community-driven campaign bringing together local organisers, volunteers, whānau and organisations to lift enrolment and participation before New Zealand goes to the polls on 7 November.

The immediate focus is simple but urgent — anyone wanting to vote must be enrolled by midnight on 25 October.

Unlike the previous two general elections, people will not be able to turn up during the voting period, enrol and then cast their ballot.

440,000 PEOPLE STILL MISSING FROM THE ROLL

The scale of the challenge is significant.

The Electoral Commission said last month that more than 3.6 million people were enrolled, but estimated another 440,000 eligible New Zealanders were not.

Around 200,000 of those missing voters were aged between 18 and 24, putting rangatahi at the centre of efforts to increase participation.

Together for the Vote is responding by taking enrolment conversations beyond traditional political spaces and into communities.

ActionStation says people across electorates are organising events, talking with friends and whānau, attending markets and using their own networks to make sure eligible voters understand the new deadline.

NO MORE ENROLLING WHEN YOU VOTE

The change to enrolment rules makes this year’s campaign particularly important.

Under the Electoral Amendment Act 2025, enrolment closes 13 days before election day.

Voting begins on 26 October, meaning anyone who has not enrolled by midnight the previous day will be unable to enrol during the voting period.

The Electoral Commission says this is different from the previous two general elections, when voters could enrol and vote at the same time.

That creates an additional risk for people who assume the rules remain unchanged.

It is also important for people who have recently moved to check their details. The Electoral Commission says large numbers of enrolment packs have been returned because voters are no longer living at their recorded address.

RANGATAHI AND MĀORI PARTICIPATION IN THE SPOTLIGHT

ActionStation is particularly concerned about the effect of the changes on communities that already face barriers to electoral participation, including Māori, Pacific peoples, young people, renters and people experiencing housing insecurity.

Hartendorp says community organisers are responding with considerable energy, with people working across electorates to ensure friends, relatives and neighbours are enrolled before the deadline.

For Māori, that makes whānau-to-whānau conversations potentially powerful.

A rangatahi enrolling for the first time may not be following daily political coverage or thinking about an election still weeks away.

But a conversation at the marae, workplace, sports club, market, kura or around the whānau table could determine whether that person is able to participate when voting begins.

TĀIKI Ē! TAKES ENROLMENT INTO THE COMMUNITY

The latest stage of Together for the Vote is Tāiki ē! Your Enrolment Festival, which launched this week as a nationwide community mobilisation.

Rather than depending solely on advertising telling people to enrol, the campaign wants communities themselves to lead the effort.

ActionStation says it is seeing local people organising enrolment activities and taking the message directly into their own networks.

The Electoral Commission is simultaneously stepping up its official campaign, sending more than two million enrolment reminder emails and establishing face-to-face enrolment hubs around the country.

CHECK YOUR DETAILS — DON’T ASSUME

Being enrolled previously does not necessarily mean everything is ready for 2026.

People who have moved should check their address, while anyone who expected an enrolment pack but did not receive one is being encouraged to check their details.

Those enrolled by 4 October can also receive an EasyVote card, while 25 October remains the final enrolment deadline.

For Māori enrolling for the first time, there is still the opportunity to choose between the Māori roll and general roll. Existing Māori voters are now inside the pre-election period in which changing between those rolls is restricted.

DEMOCRACY STARTS BEFORE ELECTION DAY

Hartendorp’s work with ActionStation has previously included campaigns around Te Tiriti, Māori wards, workers’ rights and community organising.

Together for the Vote is now applying that organising model to electoral participation.

The campaign itself has an openly progressive political orientation, but its enrolment message highlights a fact applying to every eligible voter regardless of political preference.

If you are not enrolled by 25 October, you cannot vote in Election 2026.

With around 440,000 eligible people estimated to have been missing from the roll and approximately 200,000 of them aged 18 to 24, the next several weeks could determine whether a substantial group of New Zealanders gets to participate in choosing the next Government.

For Hartendorp and Together for the Vote, that means Election 2026 does not begin when the polling booths open.

It begins now — in communities, workplaces, markets and whānau conversations across Aotearoa.

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