What Happens if you are Working on November 26

Just because you are working on Polling Day (Saturday 26 November)  doesn’t mean you can be denied your right to vote in this year’s General Election and Referendum.

The first thing to consider is Advanced Voting. From Wednesday 9 November you can cast an advanced vote if you don’t think you’ll be able to make it to a polling place on the 26th.

There is somewhere designated for each electorate that will accept advanced votes.  See http://www.elections.org.nz/voting/voting-info/ to find where that is in your electorate. 

However those places might not be very convenient (for example, all the advance voting locations listed in Te Tai Tonga are in Christchurch). So if you can’t get to that place you can organise to have ballot papers sent to you in the mail. To do that you must contact the Returning Officer in your electorate. See http://www.elections.org.nz/voting/votingsub/returning-officers-contact-... for a list of the returning officers, in alphabetical order of the electorates.

If that won’t work for you, you can also contact your Returning Officer to organise for someone else to pick up you voting papers and bring them to you.

But what if you don’t get round to organising an Advanced Vote. Don’t worry. The law still guarantees you the right to vote on the 26th – even if you have to be at work.  Any worker who hasn’t had a reasonable opportunity to vote before starting work (the polling booths open at 9am – and then there’s often queues early), must be allowed off no later than 3pm to go to vote- and the time must be paid. If, because you doing essential work or are delivering an essential service, you have to work after 3pm, you are entitled to at least two hours paid time off before the polls close at 7pm.

The relevant legislation is Section 162 of the Electoral Act. It states:

Employees to have time off to vote
 

(1) Subject to the provisions of this section, on the polling day at any election every employer shall allow every worker in his or her employment who is an elector of any electoral district in which the election is being held, and who has not had a reasonable opportunity of voting before commencing work, to leave his or her work for the purpose of voting not later than 3 o’clock in the afternoon for the remainder of the day, and it shall not be lawful for any employer to make any deduction from any remuneration payable to any such worker in respect of any time after the time of his or her leaving his or her work as aforesaid.

(2) Where any such worker is required to work after 3 o’clock in the afternoon of polling day for the purpose of carrying on any essential work or service, his or her employer shall on that day allow the worker to leave his or her work for a reasonable time for the purpose of voting, and it shall not be lawful for the employer to make any deduction from any remuneration payable to the worker in respect of any time, not exceeding 2 hours, occupied in voting as aforesaid.

(3) Every person commits an offence and shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000 who contravenes subsection (1) or subsection (2).

(4) Every master of a ship that happens to be in any port in New Zealand at the time of any general election or by-election in any district, at the request of any of the crew being registered or qualified to be registered as electors of that district, shall allow them to go ashore at a proper time to admit of their voting at the election; and every master who without reasonable cause commits any breach of this subsection shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding $1,000.

(5) For the purposes of this section,—
employer has the same meaning as in section 5 of the Employment Relations Act 2000
master, in relation to any ship, includes any person (except a pilot) having command or charge of the ship
worker has the same meaning as that given to employee in section 6 of the Employment Relations Act 2000.

(6) This section shall bind the Crown