Voting for the 2023 General Election has started for anyone overseas from Wednesday – but the election itself is still over two weeks away, with votes not set to be counted until Saturday, October 14.

So, here’s what you need to know about voting before election day.

The basics of ‘advance voting’

Voting within New Zealand starts on Monday, October 2, and ends at 7pm on election day. If you're in New Zealand during this time, you can vote at any voting place in the country.

According to Chief Electoral Officer, Karl Le Quesne, places you can vote include “shopping areas, transport hubs, kura, marae, community halls and sports clubs, to make it easy for people to vote as they go about their daily lives”.

Voting before election day – also known as advance voting – has increased in popularity recently, with 68 per cent of votes cast before election day in 2020, says Quesne.

Over 400 voting spots open on Monday, October 2, and you can find your nearest voting place online here.

That number will grow as we head towards election day and by Saturday, October 14, more than 2300 voting places will be open around the motu.

But bear in mind – it’s not too late to enrol to vote in this year’s election. Any eligible voter can fill out an enrolment form and vote any time up until election day itself.

Voting from overseas

You can now vote from overseas, and you have until midnight NZT on Friday, October 13, to enrol.

About 78,000 enrolled voters have an overseas address, so this could well be you, but beware – the rules around who can vote from overseas have changed this election.

If you’re 18-years-old or older, have lived in New Zealand for more than 12 months continuously at some time in your life, and are either a New Zealand citizen who has been in Aotearoa within the last six years or a permanent resident who has been in New Zealand within the last four years, you’re eligible.

You’re also eligible to enrol and vote no matter how long you’ve been outside New Zealand if you’re a public servant working overseas, a New Zealand diplomat or trade representative or a member of the Defence Force – or their families.

Those hoping to vote from overseas can then download, complete and re-upload voting papers to the Electoral Comission’s website.

In 2020, more than 90 per cent of overseas voters used the online forms.

Other voters may be able to vote in person and a full list of overseas voting spots can be found here, with a total of 74 locations overseas, 10 of which are in Australia.

Telephone dictation voting

If you’re enrolled to vote and are blind, partially blind or have another physical disability that prevents you from marking your voting paper without assistance, you’re eligible to vote by telephone dictation.

You need to register to use the telephone dictation service for the general election, even if you've used it at previous elections.

To register, call 0800 028 028 from within New Zealand or +64 4471 2000 from overseas. You must be registered for telephone dictation voting by noon NZT on election day.

Other ways of voting

Voting services are also provided for those who can’t get to a voting place, for example, because of poor health.

In these instances, you can authorise someone – a friend, family member or care home worker, for example – to pick up your voting papers from a voting place for you.

Your voting papers must be returned to a voting place before 7pm on election day.

Votes will then be counted on election night, when the preliminary election results are released.

- Katie Ham/Stuff.