Voting is one of the most important things Kiwis will do, it decides the government, laws, and policies which will affect their lives. So the Kiwi Party wants to make sure as many people as people take part in this democratic process, we will do this by making voting mandatory. This will mean that any non-voters will be punished with a small fine, this should get everyone to be interested in politics. It will also mean that people who don’t think their vote counts, vote anyway. Compulsory voting doesn’t have a downside, if people don’t support any candidate then they can spoil their ballot which shows candidates that they care about politics but hate all the parties.

The Kiwi Party will also bring the vote to 16 and 17 year olds. This will mean that young people will also get a say in policy which will affect their lives. 16 year olds at election time will be 18 or 19 by the end of the term and so their vote will decide who’s in power when they start their adulthood. The Kiwi Party despite our main policy and goal being votes at 16, will support a bill which lowers the voting age from 18 to 14, 15 or 17, as we are strong believers in compromise and not just focusing on our goals but working with others. We will also listen to young people’s concerns at the election.

Finally we are planning to give the right to vote for prisoners serving 6 years or less. This will mean that more people take part in our process and that prisoners in jail for smaller crimes will not have their freedom of voting taken away from them. We don’t believe people in jail for shoplifting should be barred completely from voting, they should be allowed to vote, they don’t deserve their rights stripped for a minor crime.