New Zealand election 2023: polls close as first results expected shortly – live updates | New Zealand election 2023

I’m Labour HQ in Lower Hutt for the evening, Charlotte Graham McLay reports, the hometown of prime minister and Labour leader Chris Hipkins – he’ll make an appearance later in the evening.

She writes:

For now, early in the night, party faithful outnumber reporters – just. They’ve put the telly on, but not so much as a ripple went through the room at that first tranche of results – understandable given how disappointed Labour will be.

What is generating interest, though, is the evening’s cuisine – which includes sausage rolls, of course.

They’re a favourite of Hipkins – which we wrote about when he was served a giant sausage roll cake last year.

First results

Seats to watch out for – part 1

Polls have closed and both Labour and National are unsurprisingly putting on a brave face, says Henry Cooke, London-based columnist for the Guardian and the former chief political reporter for New Zealand news outlet Stuff.

He says:

I talked to some insiders just before the results started to come in. A National source said there was some potential for a surprise on the upside – meaning they thought they could be a bit stronger than their polls. They said Chris Hipkins’ decision to go negative in the last debate had played badly with voters.

On the Labour side, a source said they were “quietly determined”. They had contacted 80,000 people through the phone and at the doorstep to get out the vote. But they were a little worried the Electoral Commission technical problems could dampen turnout.

With the polls set to close, here are some of the obligatory pictures of dogs at polling stations:

Polls close at 7pm and the counting of “ordinary votes” – those cast on election day – will begin, Eva Corlett reports.

Results will roll in quickly from then. More than 1.3 million New Zealanders cast advance votes before election day, with the count of these underway from Saturday morning.

Those first results are considered a big sample size and can give a good indication of which way the party vote is heading.

In both the 2020 and 2017 elections, the final results were remarkably similar to those when just 4% of votes had been counted.

Special votes – those cast outside a voter’s electorate or from overseas polling stations – are counted after election day.

The Electoral Commission aims to post results from 50% of voting stations by 10pm and 95% by 11.30pm, with the final results (including special votes) published on November 3.

Some voters may have experienced added delays during peak voting hours after the electronic version of the electoral roll crashed just after midday, Eva Corlett reports.

The app is used to look up people who don’t have their EasyVote card or don’t know which electorate they are in.

The Electoral Commission said while the glitch may have caused some delays for people casting a special vote – a vote made outside the voter’s electorate – it has not affected most voters.

The technical problem has now been fixed, the commission said.

Election 2023 has been a glorious day in Auckland weather-wise, Serena Solomon reports. Sunny and a slight breeze with the hug of summer in the air – a welcomed goodbye to a southern hemisphere winter.

Driving in to Auckland CBD today, there was not a political party sign to be seen.

As I wrote about yesterday, from midnight on election day, New Zealand election laws forbid campaigning, media cannot report political stories and all the campaign signage comes down (among other rules). Must have been a busy night for party volunteers who were tasked with taking down thousands of signs across the county.

A fisher enjoying the fine weather at Auckland harbour on election day:

Voters stuck in long lines at New Zealand’s polling stations will still be able to vote after the 7pm cutoff, the country’s Electoral Commission has confirmed, Eva Corlett reports.

Extra staff were required at some of the 2300 polling stations around the country due to high demand, it said. Some voters reported waiting between 20-45 minutes in queue before casting their votes.

Waiting voters would not be turned away, said the chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne:

If you are waiting at your voting place to vote and it turns to 7pm, you can still stay on the line and cast your vote.

Just over 1.3 million New Zealanders voted prior to election day – roughly 600,000 thousand fewer than the 2020 election and about 150,000 more than in 2017. Approximately 3.5 million people are enrolled to vote.

A little bit more on the background to election day restrictions here from our reporter Serena Solomon:

It is a criminal offence in New Zealand to do anything that could be seen as encouraging or persuading voters on election day, a law that stems from 19th-century England, where New Zealand gets its parliamentary model. This ban includes advertising, public statements, processions and speeches, as well as displaying candidate, party names, emblems, slogans or logos.

“What the law basically says to people is you have to quietly go to a place without any attempt to influence you or stir up your emotions, and you consult your conscience in private,” said Prof Andrew Geddis, an expert in electoral law from the University of Otago.

“You then cast your vote much in the same way as when you go to church and you make a little prayer to God.”

Read on below:

Last hour of voting