About the 2020 General Election

The 2020 General Election will now be held on Saturday 17 October along with the End of Life Choice referendum and Cannabis legalisation and control referendum. 

You need to be enrolled to vote in the election and referendums.

To enrol and vote, you need to be 18 years or older, a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident, and have lived in New Zealand continuously for 12 months or more at some time in your life.

COVID-19 and the 2020 General Election

We have processes in place to protect you and your whānau while you vote.

Voting will open 2 days earlier than usual, and there will be more voting places to reduce queues. We encourage you to vote locally and bring your own pen if you can. We’ll provide hand sanitiser at voting places, and there’ll be space for physical distancing. If you can’t get to a voting place because of poor health or mobility, you’ll have other ways of voting including voting by post.

Voting starts on 3 October  

If you're in New Zealand, you'll be able to vote from Saturday 3 October to 7pm on election day, Saturday 17 October. You can vote from overseas from Wednesday 30 September.

Full election timetable

The timetable for the election is determined in accordance with the Electoral Act 1993.

Date

Action

Monday 17 August

Prime Minister announces new dates for 2020 General Election

Tuesday 18 August

Regulated period for election advertising expenses begins

Sunday 6 September

Parliament dissolves

Sunday 13 September 

Writ Day — the Governor General formally directs us to hold the election

12pm, Thursday 17 September 

The deadline for party secretaries to get their bulk nomination schedules and party lists to the Electoral Commission 

12pm, Friday 18 September 

The deadline for electorate candidates to get their individual nomination forms to the Electoral Commission 

Wednesday 30 September

Overseas voting and phone dictation voting starts

Saturday 3 September

Voting starts

Saturday 17 October

Election day. Voters can vote from 9am to 7pm

We'll start releasing preliminary election results from 7pm on electionresults.govt.nz

We won't count referendum votes on election night

Friday 30 October

We release the preliminary results for the referendums

Friday 6 November

We declare the official results for the general election and referendums

Thursday 12 November

Last day for the return of the writ

Voting in the election

At the 2020 General Election, you can vote for the parties and candidates you want to represent you in Parliament. You can also vote in two referendums.

You can vote on whether the End of Life Choice Act 2019 should come into force, giving people with a terminal illness the option of requesting assisted dying. You can also vote on whether the recreational use of cannabis should become legal.

More information about when and how to vote is available in accessible formats on our website vote.nz or by calling 0800 36 76 56. For more information on the referendums go to referendums.govt.nz.

Election results 

We’ll release preliminary election results from 7pm on 17 October at electionresults.govt.nz 

We’ll count referendum votes after election day, and release the preliminary referendum results on Friday 30 October.

We’ll release the official results for the general election and referendums on Friday 6 November.