The Litter Box

New Zealand has a general election coming up this month - in fact, advance voting is already open around the country. These are a couple of basic guides to the logistics of voting in this election.

Of particular note is the new requirement to state your full name aloud for the Issuing Officer. If this is an issue for you, you may want to consider advance voting, and doing so early, as advance voting locations are often empty (except for the last 3 days, as noted in part 1). 

Part 1: Advance Voting

Highlights: 

Do I need my EasyVote Card to cast an advance vote?

No.

If I don’t have my EasyVote Card, do I need ID?

No.

…

Do I have to be enrolled?

No. We can enrol you in the advance voting booth and you can cast your vote at the same time. The only time you can’t enrol is on Election Day.

What if I’m not sure if I’m enrolled or what electorate I’m in or which roll I’m on?

You should definitely come in and advance vote

Part 2: Everything Else

Highlights:

Can I vote if I don’t have my EasyVote card?

Yes.

Do I need ID to vote?

No. No. No you do not.

Are you sure?

*screams into a pillow*

I’ve voted heaps of times and I don’t have any questions, so I can completely ignore this, right?

Here’s what’s new this time around. You will be asked to state your full name, aloud. This is a legal requirement. If you refuse to do so, the Issuing Officer will send you to the polling place manager for a talking-to and a spanking. Okay, a form. And you’ll have to cast a special vote. I personally completely understand that this will make some people uncomfortable. It makes me uncomfortable. We should probably take it up with whoever it was who made the legal challenge that led to this change.

Secondly, though it's true that there is a legal requirement to confirm your name, you DO NOT have to say it out loud. If you are non-verbal, you can nod when the issuing officer points at your name on the EasyVote card, and you can then be issued an ordinary vote. 

The NZ Electoral Commission's position is that nobody who wants to vote gets turned away. Not enrolled, or not sure whether you're enrolled or not? Turn up to an advance voting place, fill in an enrolment form, and vote on the spot! If it's election day and you don't know if you're enrolled, but you've turned up to the voting place just in case, cast a special vote! If you're out of your home electorate on election day, you can go into any voting place around NZ and still be able to vote. If you don't have a fixed address, you can still enrol and vote.

Basically, the NZEC did a bunch of research into voter fraud and voter suppression, and came to the conclusion that since the incidence of voter fraud in NZ was phenomenally low, they should instead concentrate on making sure that as many people as possible could exercise their right to vote. 

Humming, Steve takes a seat on the bench in the foyer to untie his loafers. He tucks them carefully under the bench, lining them up beside his sneakers, then reaches for the shoes Sam’s just toed off and left in the middle of the floor, lining them up too.

“When are you going to quit teasing them?” Sam asks.

Steve grins up at him. “When are they going to quit calling me Mr. Rogers?”

“Probably never.”

i’m not happy

i’m not happy at all

i just need content creators to understand what they’re doing to their fans with hearing and processing disabilities when they expect them to pay extra for content everyone else gets to enjoy for free

i just need content creators to realize that these disabled fans are often under- or unemployed and don’t have unlimited money to throw at them in exchange for their otherwise free content

and i understand that these fans are not necessarily who content creators have in mind when they decide how to release their transcripts

but that’s part of the problem

that’s a huge part of the problem

i need content creators to understand that by refusing to prioritize (or even acknowledge) their disabled fans and their needs they are committing acts of ableism

if people need to pay to access your transcripts your podcast isn’t accessible and you have no right to pretend otherwise

if your transcripts are available for free on demand? that’s better but sorry your podcast isn’t accessible either and you also have no right to pretend otherwise

i know you can do better