Voting should be a right... not a privilege!

This year is election year - 7 November! If you can, we encourage y'all to enrol, get informed, and use your voice. Because your voice matters! This government has made a number of changes to the law around voting this year, and there’s one change that we whole heartedly don’t agree with.

As of December 2025, the law now says this: if you are in prison, you cannot vote if your sentence is more than three years, OR if your sentence is under three years but your offending happened on or after 20 December 2025.

That means two people, serving the same sentence, in the same prison, can be treated completely differently - based solely on when their offence occurred. Make that make sense!!!

So the only people in prison who can vote are those serving sentences under three years for offences committed before 20 December 2025, or people on remand. People on home detention or community based sentences can still vote!

This is a major step backwards…but we’ve been here before. Before 2010, some people in prison had the right to vote. That changed when a blanket ban on prisoner voting was introduced in 2010 and heavily criticised. The Supreme Court said that the law was inconsistent with the NZ Bill of Rights Act and The Waitangi Tribunal found banning prisoners from voting disproportionately affects Māori prisoners and breaches Te Tiriti o Waitangi. So it’s not just us that says it's unjust! 

In 2020, the law was corrected, restoring voting rights to people serving sentences under three years.

But now, once again….we’re watching that progress be undone!

Māori make up around half of the prison population in Aotearoa, despite being a much smaller proportion of the overall population. For wāhine Māori, the disparity is even bigger - in the year to June 2025, wāhine Māori made up 15 percent of women in Aotearoa, but they represent 66 percent of women who were remanded in prison and 71 percent of women who were sentenced to prison.

So when you remove rights from people in prison, you are disproportionately removing rights from Māori. It is a continuation of systems that exclude, silence, and control Māori voices and that's not accidental. That’s intentional. 

At Home Ground, we work closely with women in the justice system, wāhine who are mothers, aunties, grandmothers, artists, survivors, role models, leaders. Women who hold deep, meaningful roles within their whānau and communities. Many have experienced layers of harm, trauma, and systemic disadvantage long before they ever entered the justice system or prison. For many, we know pathways into prison are shaped and in some cases determined by the very systems that are now trying to silence them even further. 

Prison is not the start of their story. And it is not the end of their humanity. Voting is not a reward for good behaviour. It is not something you earn. It is a right. A basic, human right that says - you are still part of this society.

Taking that away builds disconnection. It tells people they no longer belong, that their voice doesn’t matter. And then we expect people to reintegrate -  to reconnect and feel invested and supported in their communities? How?!

If we are serious about creating collective caring communities, we should be strengthening connections…..and voting is one of the simplest ways to maintain that connection. It simply says - you still have a voice here.

A close up of a paper collage - created by one of our ropu during Sparkle Bomb! A reflection on what the project had gifted them over 6 weeks. Art by BC.

Despite these changes, some people still can vote in prison. So if you or someone you know are in prison, you can enrol and vote if:

• You are serving a sentence of less than three years and your offending occurred before 20 December 2025, or

• You are on remand

• You can also vote if you are on home detention or serving a community-based sentence.

You must be 18 or older, and a New Zealand citizen or permanent resident who has lived here for at least 12 months.

Corrections staff are legally required to support eligible people to enrol and vote. Mobile voting teams will visit prisons during the voting period, and you still have the right to vote even if you are in segregation or have had privileges removed.

So if this kōrero applies to you, or someone you know. Let them know or make it known you want to vote.

Because your voice still matters. Because no one stops being human because they are in prison. We do not become less worthy of a voice.

At Home Ground, we know this…..those most impacted by our systems should be the ones we listen to the most!!!

So a reminder if you are in the community you can enrol or update online at vote.nz, or request a form by calling 0800 36 76 56 or texting your name and address to 3676.

For Māori voters, there’s another key date to remember. If you whakapapa Māori, you can choose to be on either the Māori roll or the General roll. The deadline to switch rolls is midnight, 6 August 2026. 

The key message is this:

• Make sure you’re enrolled

• Update your details if you’ve moved

• Decide which roll is right for you - Māori or general roll before 6 August

• Vote.nz has all the info

This election matters. Our voices, your voices - matter.