What is it with America’s current obsession with restricting voter eligibility as well as making the actual act of voting more difficult? To me and most Kiwi’s that is the antithesis of what democracy is all about. And might I add that their obsession with non-citizens voting seems to be little short of xenophobia. For a nation built by immigrants this seems highly hypocritical. Admittedly most nations restrict voting rights to citizens, but the US seems to have taken it more to heart than almost anywhere else.
New Zealand is one of a few nations in the world that grants voting rights to non-citizens in national elections and referendums. I can find only four countries (New Zealand, Malawi, Uruguay, and Chile) that allow permanent residents to vote in national elections without any restrictions. New Zealand is the most inclusive of these four, as it requires only one year of residence for permanent residents to be eligible to vote. In contrast, Malawi requires seven years, Uruguay requires five years, and Chile requires five years and a special oath.
New Zealand’s liberal approach to voting rights for non-citizens reflects its history of immigration and its commitment to democratic values. New Zealand has been granting voting rights to non-citizens since 1853, when it allowed British subjects to vote without any residence requirement. Over time, the eligibility criteria have changed to include non-British subjects and to introduce a minimum residence requirement, but the principle of extending voting rights to non-citizens has remained. New Zealand’s electoral laws also recognised the impact of the pandemic on international travel, and temporarily extended the overseas voting eligibility for New Zealand citizens and permanent residents for the 2023 General Election.
Consider this: 14% of American residents were born overseas, and a little over 6% of American residents are non-citizens. The same figures for New Zealand are 28% and 11% respectively. If extending voting rights to non-citizens had a negative impact on the well being of a nation, doesn’t it seem probable that any harm it might cause would have become apparent in this country before now?
New Zealand’s experience with non-citizen voting has been largely positive, as it has contributed to the integration and participation of immigrants in the political community. Non-citizen voters tend to have similar preferences and behaviours as citizen voters, and do not pose a threat to the national identity or interests of New Zealand. Non-citizen voting also enhances the representation and diversity of the electorate, and encourages the responsiveness and accountability of the government to the needs and concerns of all residents. Shouldn’t that be at the heart of good government everywhere?
Another Spectrum 
3 Feb, 2024 at 12:43 am
Indeed! When South Africa had its first democratic election permanent residents were also eligible to vote, and my wife and I did just that, queueing along with all and sundry, caught up in Mandela Fever, smile on our face, looking forward to a bright new future.
I almost gag at how sickly sweet and cheesey that sounds.
Once the ANC were entrenched, at the next general ejection only citizens were allowed to vote.
The ANC were very clever.
And look at SA now.
And the ANC? Just another corrupt, incompetent African government, still blaming Apartheid for the collapsing infrastructure and everything else that they have been unable to manage.
We have a general election this year, but there is little or no chance permanent residents will be allowed to vote once more.
Even former presidents Mbeki and Zuma have stated they will not endorse the ANC. And Zuma spent time in jail for corruption!
One can only hope the ANC stranglehold will at least be loosened somewhat after South African citizens have been to the ballot box.
3 Feb, 2024 at 11:13 am
Hello. The republicans drive to restrict voting is because what republicans want to do is very unpopular with the majority of the public. Republicans want to return the country to a time when only certain white people had full rights, where government was basically toothless with no way to control or restrain businesses greed and unsafe practices, where religious Christian establishments held a higher place in society not because they deserved it, but because of traditional thinking that Christian churches were automatically good and no other religion was.
Republicans do not want to serve the public, they want to rule the public.
Since the public, the people have moved along socially into the modern age, they reject the oppression the republicans want such as Draconian anti-abortion policies. Also the public rejects the Republican Party attempt to force the Christian religion / church doctrines on everyone, into schools, and to rule over everyone’s personal lives.
The people the republicans depend on for votes are older white people scared they won’t be the majority in the country and brown / black people might out number them, but they are dying off. They depend on the fundamentalist Christians who have taken over the party, but those people are a minority even in the Christian faith. So since they cater to wealthy people and old white supremacists, if they want to stay in power they have to restrict voting to only those that they think will vote for them.
They had a choice a decade ago, expand their outreach and open their polices, or try to prevent everyone but those they think will vote for them from voting. So they desperately keep trying to narrow who can vote. They know that younger college educated people don’t vote for republicans, so they want to stop them from voting. They know most black people and poor people won’t vote for them, so they try hard to make voting in areas that those are the majority as hard as possible.
The entire point is rather than change their ideas that are very unpopular, they try to change who can vote so they stay in power. And also along with the above they use extreme gerrymandering that makes it impossible but anyone other than them to win. Best wishes. Scottie
3 Feb, 2024 at 3:22 pm
Hi Scottie. Regardless of the extreme view of Republicans, I suspect most Americans, no matter what political persuasion, would be reluctant to allow non-citizens to vote in statewide or federal elections, and in this regard I think America holds an extreme version of what most of rest the world also believes – that voting should be restricted to citizens only.
Aotearoa New Zealand, being one of only four nations that grant voting rights to non-citizens does not place so much significance on citizenship as other nations. It’s almost as though choosing to live here is enough to grant you the same rights and responsibilities as those who inherit those rights and responsibilities by descent.
What does it matter whether one is a citizen or not? My wife lived in New Zealand for 40 years before deciding to become a citizen, because by doing so under Japanese law she automatically forfeited her Japanese citizenship, which meant that she could no longer reside in Japan to care for her parents if the need arose. So it wasn’t until that ceased to be a possibility that she became a NZ citizen. In the meantime she had exactly the same rights, privileges and responsibilities as myself. including registering for jury service.
The only difference between a citizen and a non-citizen is that if a non-citizen commits a very serious crime such as murder, then there is a possibility of them being deported after completing their sentence.
I’ll go back to my final two sentences: Non-citizen voting also enhances the representation and diversity of the electorate, and encourages the responsiveness and accountability of the government to the needs and concerns of all residents. Shouldn’t that be at the heart of good government everywhere?. I wonder why other nations are reluctant to see this perspective.
🙇🏼
6 Feb, 2024 at 6:39 am
Hi Barry. You are mostly correct, but not entirely. See here in the US many “blue” states, states run by democrats, do allow noncitizens residents to vote on local / state issues. Federal law doesn’t allow noncitizens to vote in federal elections. There is a huge dislike of noncitizens in red states controlled by republicans, yet they desperately need those same noncitizens. Yet they don’t want them to have a voice. It is like you say in your post.
My abusive adoptive parents were on green cards in the US, meaning they were legal immigrants. The town they lived in let them vote / have a voice locally, but that was it. Most elections were closed to them. They were so proud to be included that they did more for the local community. The adoptive father was on the volunteer fire department, he was on the local cemetery committee and took care of the cemeteries / graves personally. There were other things, but it was because they were recognized as being members of the community.
So you are 100% correct. Allowing people say in the places they live makes them more connected to those places and their welfare. That said, there is one place it doesn’t seem to register the impact voting can have. The USA. See here, the republicans and the right have so long tried to stop voting and denied people the vote that many people have just given up on trying to vote. I know James, our 31 year old friend, has never voted and doesn’t care to. Sees it as pointless. Even though we have pointed out that if he voted it would help us and his other friends.
Barry, I am at a loss how to fix that. No matter what we said to James made no difference, and there are 40 to 50 percent of the US population eligible to vote who don’t, for different reasons. Best wishes. Scottie
6 Feb, 2024 at 9:16 pm
I stand corrected. I was relying on Google for my information, which informed me that no US state permits non-citizens to vote for state legislatures/governors or for federal legislature/President, but that some (mostly blue) states allowed non-citizens to participate at municipal/county/school board board level, whereas here, non-citizen voting rights are the same as citizen voting rights at all levels from school boards to Parliament.
A long time ago, politicians here decided that in order for elections to be seen as free and fair, they should be managed by an independent authority. In fact we have two. (1) The Electoral Commission is responsible for running New Zealand’s parliamentary elections and keeping the electoral rolls up to date, and (2) the Representation Commission, which reviews and determines the boundaries and names of electorates (voting districts) every five years. And like most administrative authorities in NZ, these are all non-political appointments and independent of the executive and legislative branches of government.
We have strict rules on how much political parties and candidates can spend during an election campaign and the legislative framework around elections are overseen not only by the Electoral Commission, but also by the Broadcasting Standards Authority (BSA), Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), and NZ Media Council (NZMC). The latter three are independent bodies set up under legislation and membership is drawn from people in the respective industries. The types of lies that that goes out as “news shows” on the likes of Fox News etc, would likely find the broadcaster/media outlet censured by one of the authorities – usually just a public slap over the wrist but on occasions may lead to a correction and public apology or in very rare circumstances, a financial penalty such as not being allowed to run advertisements of a number of hours.
I think the biggest turnoff for younger voter in the US is the level of lying and character assassination that politicians tend to resort to. That type of confrontational politics doesn’t go down to well with the younger set here, and I presume there as well. And you really have only two viable alternatives (Tweedledum and Tweedledee), whereas here neither of the major political parties can govern alone and require the support of one or more minor parties in order to govern. This keeps all parties, and the major parties in particular honest and sensitive to the desires of potential electors. Finally, we have proportional representation, so that even votes for minor parties are not wasted. If a political party gains 5% of the votes nationwide, it will gain 5% of the seats in the legislature. Approximately a third of the seats in Parliament are currently held by minor parties.
I think the biggest stumbling block to the types of reforms your electoral system needs is the US constitution, and I can’t see there being a snowball’s chance in hell of there being enough bipartisan support for any reform.
We are one of less than a handful of nations that don’t have a formal constitution and so we rely on conventions, customs and goodwill to manage the checks and balances that are set in stone in your constitution. And over the 184 of us being a nation, I think the flexibility and adaptability of our system has served us well, and I think better than the ageing, frozen constitution has served the US.
10 Feb, 2024 at 6:24 am
Hi Barry. I might have been confusing in my comment, sorry.
You are correct that state legislators and federal elections the persons must be citizens. There is a movement to let noncitizens vote in state elections in some states. I was talking local elections such as town / city councils, mayors, town / city offices, school boards … that kind of stuff but not state wide elected office such as legislators. I heard some blue states will hold other state wide referendums that may let noncitizens vote, but I am not sure if that was just something that that people were fighting for or actually done.
The issue here gets confused with illegal, non-documented people voting. Some places want to open local elections to them also. As you say, they live in the communities and should have a say in their communities.
I like a lot of your election systems and often thought that multiple parties would help the US. I wish the US would implement a lot of your election rules. Thanks for letting me know how your country does it. The US could learn a lot if our leaders / people could only get over their ego and look to other countries to see how they do things. So many countries have happier populations, and the lives of the people in the US would be so much better if we would bother trying what works for other countries. But as I said, our leaders have tried much of the public to think our country is superior to all others. That is wrong. Best wishes. Scottie
3 Feb, 2024 at 5:11 pm
So, what do I need to do to relocate to New Zealand, Barry?
To clarify just a bit on Scottie’s answer to your question: Republicans are a minority of eligible voters and are not, contrary to what it might seem, extremely popular. IF every eligible voter actually voted, the Republicans could not win a national election and would win very few state elections. Therefore, the next best thing in their eyes is to make it harder for certain groups, ie. Blacks, Hispanics, the poor, the elderly, and college students to vote, for those are the groups that are most likely to vote Democrat. So, if you can’t win honestly, then keep people away from the polls, make it damn near impossible for the poor single mother working two jobs to vote. And if all else fails, purge a few thousand registered voters off the rolls … that always works! Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr …
4 Feb, 2024 at 11:45 am
I emphatically, agree, Barry! Voting rights in the US has never made sense, but in terms of immigrants, it displays the horrific undertone of the White Christian Nationalists who are attempting to mold our nation into their image. I also heartily concur with Jill’s comment below.
All of this saddens and sickens me, though I’m quite sure it’s not a majority view.
17 Feb, 2024 at 2:45 am
The UK seems to be headed the same way as America. You now have to present ID to be able to vote and for the local elections last May we had a sudden race to sort out my partner’s driving licence which needed renewing. (Oddly enough, we were talking last night about our decision about 30 years ago to not make use of my partner’s NZ citizenship right and emigrate there. )