Uploading your voting papers

The easiest way to get your voting papers is to download them.

Downloading your voting papers

You can scan or photograph your completed declaration form and ballot paper for the 2023 General Election, or if you completed your voting papers electronically, you just need to select the image file or PDF file that you saved of your completed voting papers.

We cannot accept typed signatures or digital certificates.

How to complete your voting papers

Make sure your images are clear enough to read and show the whole page clearly before you upload them - if they aren’t clear, your vote may not count.

We need to be able to read all the contents of the declaration form, especially:

• your details and signature
• your witness’ details and signature; and
• the seven-digit number near the top right-hand corner of the page

Your declaration form must show your normal signature. We cannot accept typed signatures or digital signatures.

On the ballot paper, we need to be able to read:

• your voting choice
• the seven-digit number near the top right-hand corner of the page.

If you received your voting papers by post, you’ll need to remove the black sticker that will be on the ballot paper before you scan or photograph them.

Your images will need to be saved as a JPG, PNG, GIF, PDF or TIF. If you upload the wrong type of file, you’ll see the message 'This file type is not supported’. You’ll need to remove that file from the list to continue.

Each file must be at least 10 KB and no larger than 10 MB.

We’ve designed this upload service to work with the latest versions of Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge,  and Safari.

Uploading your voting papers will automatically encrypt them. The only people who can decrypt your voting papers are electoral officials who work in a secure area and have signed secrecy agreements.

However, we can’t guarantee the security of the computer, scanner, or other device or network you may use to scan, photograph or upload your voting papers.

To make sure your vote stays secret, we recommend you delete any copies of voting papers from your devices and securely throw away the paper copies.

Some organisations may monitor the information you scanned or upload to the internet on their networks.

We handle your information in line with the Privacy Act 2020.

Privacy & security

You can post or hand deliver your voting papers to your nearest overseas voting place.

Find an overseas voting place

If you’re still having trouble, you can email overseas@vote.nz for advice.

We don’t accept voting papers by email.

Once you’ve uploaded your papers, you’ll receive a message saying you’ve either succeeded or failed to upload. You will get a reference number in either case.

If your upload wasn’t successful, try again.  If it still isn’t working, you can email overseas@vote.nz with your reference number for further assistance.