About the 2020 General Election

The 2020 General Election will be held on Saturday 19 September 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

The 2020 General Election and referendums will be different because of COVID-19. We have processes in place to protect you and your whānau.

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 need to stay home, you’ll have other ways of voting including voting by post.

Voting starts on 5 September

If you’re in New Zealand, you’ll be able to vote from Saturday 5 September to 7pm on election day, Saturday 19 September. You can vote from overseas from Wednesday 2 September.

Full election timetable

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

Date

Action

Tuesday 28 January

Prime Minister announces dates for 2020 General Election

Friday 19 June

The regulated period for election advertising starts

Wednesday 12 August

Parliament dissolves

Sunday 16 August

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

Thursday 20 August noon

The deadline for party secretaries to get their bulk nomination schedules and party lists to us

Wednesday 2 September

Overseas voting and phone dictation voting starts

Saturday 5 September

Voting starts

Saturday 19 September

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 2 October

We release the preliminary results for the referendums

Friday 9 October

We declare the official results for the general election and referendums

Thursday 15 October

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 held alongside the election.

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 where, 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.