Students will not be able to vote in the General Election and the two referendums in the City campus this year.
Out of the list of voting places announced by the Electoral Commission last week, there will be no advance voting places set up in the City Campus.
However, there will be a voting place set up in Room B118 in the Epsom Campus.
Those who live near the university and wish to vote ahead of the election would need to go to Level 3 of the Atrium on Elliot Street, the ASB Waterfront Theatre, the Limelight Rooms at Aotea Centre, or the Pioneer Women’s Hall at the Ellen Melville Centre.
All of these advance voting places (except the Waterfront Theatre) would also open for Election Day voting.
Another Election Day voting place close to the City Campus will be located at the Auckland High Court on Waterloo Quadrant.
Craccum understands that the decision to not set up voting places in the City Campus are related to COVID-19 restrictions, despite they were available last election and enjoyed great popularity.
A university spokesperson said there were plans to set up voting booths, until Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s decision in August to push back the election date from September 19th to October 17th, amid the second wave of COVID-19 outbreak.
The Electoral Commission then required larger venues to support social distancing during voting and dropped plans on setting up voting booths on campus.
Under current Alert Level 2 restrictions, there could be no more than 100 people at social gatherings. The government is due to review current restrictions on October 5th, and in principle has agreed to move Auckland down to Alert Level 1 on October 7th.
Advance Voting begins on October 3rd and will run for 2 weeks, while voters can vote on Election Day from 9am to 7pm.
Preliminary results for the General Election would be announced from 7pm on election night, but preliminary results for the referendums would not be available until October 30th.
