Zizi Sparks: Election delay chance to rethink voting methods

The election day has been shifted to October 17. Photo / File

COMMENT

Jacinda Ardern, with input from other political leaders, has decided to postpone the 2020 General Election by four weeks to October 17.

To keep the September 19 election date could have put thousands at risk and, worst-case scenario, caused Covid-19 to spread through the community at voting booths.

Announcing the decision, Ardern said the re-emergence of Covid-19 in the community was a cause for concern during the election period.

Of course she is right, but what's to say Covid-19 will have been stamped out by the new election date - or have been stamped out and then re-emerged a third time?

The extra time gives the Electoral Commission more time to prepare for an election in a Covid-19 landscape and we need to start rethinking election processes and voting methods.

Local elections are done via post. In Rotorua, the local election voter return was 45.15 per cent. In Tauranga voter return was 40.28 per cent, excluding special votes.

In comparison, general election voting is done in person. For the 2017 general election 79.67 per cent of the Rotorua electorate voted and 81.39 per cent of the voting population in the Tauranga electorate voted - more than double the turnout of the local election in Tauranga.

Nationwide, turnout was just over 70 per cent.

It seems a postal vote is not the way to encourage democracy, but if Covid-19 is circulating in the community, in-person voting may not be possible.

The ability to vote online could encourage younger people to have a say but not all people have access or skills to vote online, so an entirely online voting system is undemocratic.

Why not give people the chance to vote in all of those ways?

Vulnerable people who want to avoid leaving home can post their vote by walking to the corner postbox or ask a friend to post their ballot in.

Others can head to the polls in person, and millennials and tech-savvy voters can vote online anywhere they like - from home or out and about.

When they get to the polls, voters have a choice about which person and which party to vote for.

But we don't have a choice about how we vote.

It's time we did.