www.electionin.org

Organization : Electoral Commission
Facility : How to Vote in First Referendum
Country : New Zealand

How to Vote in First Referendum : http://www.elections.org.nz/events/referendums-new-zealand-flag-0/voting-first-referendum
Website : http://www.elections.org.nz/

Voting in the first referendum :

If you are correctly enrolled, you will receive your voting paper by post from Friday 20 November. You should get your voting paper by Friday 27 November.

Information about the four flag options, including pictures and descriptions, will be in your voting pack.

The current New Zealand flag will be on the voting paper during the second referendum only. While you can choose to vote for the current New Zealand flag in the second referendum if that is your preference, the first referendum allows you to have your say about which alternative flag you would prefer if the flag was to change.

On your voting paper, you will be asked to rank the alternative flag options – 1, 2, 3, 4 – in the order you prefer them.

You write a “1” in the box of the flag option you prefer most. Then you can put a “2” in the box of the option you prefer next, and so on.

You can rank as many or as few flag options as you wish, but you shouldn’t skip a number or use the same number more than once. You can see examples of correctly completed voting papers at the bottom of this page.

If one flag option gets fifty percent or more of all the first preference votes (that is votes marked “1”) it will be selected on the first count.

If no flag option gets fifty percent or more of the first preference votes, the flag with the fewest number “1” votes is dropped and its votes go to the flag each voter ranked next. This continues until one flag gets fifty percent or more of the valid votes.

This system of voting is called Preferential Voting (PV) and is used for elections to the House of Representatives in Australia and to elect some mayors in New Zealand, including in Wellington and Dunedin.

Make sure you’re ready :

To vote in the first referendum, you must be correctly enrolled before Thursday 19 November.

Your voting papers will be sent to you in the mail, so it is very important to make sure that you enrol early, and that you update your details if you have moved house.

Enrolling or updating your details is easy.

You are eligible to enrol and vote if you :
** are 18 years or older, and
** have lived in New Zealand for more than one year continuously at some time in your life, and
** are a New Zealand citizen, or
** are a permanent resident of New Zealand*.

* If you are Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan or Australian you can enrol once you have lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months. You do not require permanent residency to be eligible to enrol and vote.

Going to be overseas? :

Just because you’re away from home doesn’t mean you’ll miss out.

If you meet the above criteria and are either :
** a New Zealand citizen who has been in New Zealand at any point in the past three years,or
** a New Zealand permanent resident who has been in New Zealand at any point in the past 12 months

you’ll be eligible to take part. Find out more about enrolling from overseas by clicking here.

If you’re enrolled and have provided an overseas postal address your voting papers will be sent to you at that address. Otherwise you’ll need to arrange to have your papers posted to you from New Zealand.

Voting papers for the referendum can only be sent out by post, so it is critical that you make sure your details are correct. Check, enrol or update your details by clicking here.

There are a few reasons why a person cannot enrol. Click here to find out who is excluded from enrolling.

Don’t want to do it online? :

You can also get an enrolment form at any Postshop, or by freetexting your name and address to 3676, or by calling 0800 36 76 56.

If you have friends or family who need to enrol, help them get ready now.

Voting from overseas in the flag referendums :
Just because you are out of the country doesn’t mean you have to miss out on having your say in two referendums on the future of the New Zealand flag.

You are eligible to enrol and vote from overseas if you :
** are 18 years or older; and
** have lived in New Zealand for more than one year at some point in your life; and
** are a New Zealand citizen and have visited New Zealand within the last three years; or
** are a permanent resident of New Zealand and have visited New Zealand within the last 12 months.

Both referendums will take place by post, so it’s important to make sure you are enrolled and ready to take part.

You must be correctly enrolled by Thursday 19 November in order to vote in the first referendum.

Enrolling or updating your enrolment details is easy. To get an enrolment form from overseas click here or call +64 9 909 4182. More information about enrolling from overseas is available here.

How to get your voting paper :

If you’re enrolled and provided an overseas postal address your voting papers will be automatically sent to you at that address. Voting papers are sent from New Zealand from Wednesday 18 November. You can request a replacement voting paper if it doesn’t arrive by Friday 27 November.

If you don’t have an overseas postal address on the electoral roll, your voting papers will be sent to your New Zealand address. You will need to arrange to get your voting papers posted to you from New Zealand.

If you know you will be overseas during the entire voting period and don’t have an overseas postal address on the electoral roll, you can request your voting paper sent to an overseas address from Friday 30 October. These will be sent from New Zealand from Wednesday 18 November.

How to return your voting paper :

There are three ways to return your voting paper from overseas :
** Upload a photograph or scanned image of your voting paper here before 7pm Friday 11 December (NZ time).

** Fax your voting paper to the Electoral Commission (+64 4 494 2300) before 7pm Friday 11 December (NZ time)

** Post your voting paper to the Electoral Commission, but you need to make sure the envelope is post-marked by Thursday 10 December.