166,000 young voters still off the roll a month out
More than 166,000 people aged 18 to 24 were not on the electoral roll on 1 September, with 62.16 percent of that age group enrolled to vote in the 7 November general election.
The figures come from Electoral Commission data cited by RNZ. Eligible voters have until midnight on 25 October to enrol or update their details. Advance voting, when people can vote before election day, opens on 26 October.
The Electoral Commission has said it wants youth enrolment to be a lot higher, according to RNZ. A rangatahi-led response is under way. On A Roll, a non-partisan campaign led by rangatahi, aims for the biggest youth voter turnout in history, RNZ reported.
Enrolment is lower among rangatahi Māori, at 50.4 percent, according to Māori voter participation data cited by RNZ. At the last election, 48 percent of Māori aged 18 and 19 enrolled in the two weeks before polling day, according to Newsroom.
University of Auckland student leaders Matthew Lee and Rhiannon Te Paea told RNZ the reasons include lack of political education, limited engagement from politicians, and a feeling that young people's voices do not matter. Lee said many young people asked why they should vote because they felt it would not change anything.
They spoke after Te Huinga Tauira, the National Māori Students' Conference, which brought hundreds of students together in Auckland to discuss issues affecting them and celebrate their culture, according to Te Ao News.
For voters aged 18 to 34, unemployment is the second most pressing concern after the cost of living, according to a recent Ipsos poll reported by The Guardian.
Enrolment is getting on the roll. Turnout is actually voting. In the 2023 General Election, 242,536 enrolled voters aged 18 to 24 voted, or 74.17 percent of those enrolled, with 84,462 not voting, according to the Electoral Commission. The Commission has separately reported turnout for the 18 to 24 group rising from 62.7 percent to 69.3 percent. More young people vote each election, but the rate remains lower than for older voters.
The broader context here is familiar to campaign teams. Enrolment is not turnout, and youth enrolment in New Zealand skews late. The two-week surge among young Māori at the last election points to a short window where roll growth, persuasion and mobilisation overlap. That puts the work for electorate organisations and third-party campaigns into the advance voting period.
Looking at what this means for party strategists, the question is less whether young voters care about specific policies than whether contact and civics information reach them before 25 October. Low enrolment now means fewer people campaigns can contact directly. Late enrolment lifts that number, but late enrollers vote at lower rates. The parties that run enrolment drives and turnout work as one programme, rather than as separate tasks, will be best placed if the late surge repeats.
