Advance voting in the 2026 general election opened today, Labour Day, giving Southlanders two weeks to cast their votes before election day on Saturday 7 November.

Voting places are opening across Invercargill and Southland over the coming days as part of a national network of 2638 venues that will operate at some point during the voting period. More than 2300 will be open on election day itself, and hours vary by location.

Enrolment closed at midnight on Sunday. Under changes made by the Government, voters can no longer enrol at a voting place on the day, and anyone who enrolled after writ day on 4 October will have to cast a special vote.

As of Friday, 92.4 per cent of eligible New Zealanders were enrolled, compared with 94.7 per cent at the 2023 election. The Electoral Commission has acknowledged the earlier cut-off would affect the numbers.

Who is standing

Sitting National MP Penny Simmonds, a Cabinet minister, is seeking a third term in Invercargill. She faces Labour's Janice Lee and the Green Party's Dave Kennedy, both of whom joined her in an Otago Daily Times candidates' debate on 10 October.

In the neighbouring Southland electorate, which takes in Gore, Winton, Te Anau and Queenstown, National's Joseph Mooney is defending the seat he has held since it was created in 2020.

His challengers include Labour's Peter McDonald, a Dipton farmer and former Environment Southland councillor, and NZ First's Jason Herrick, who announced in April that he would stand down as Southland Federated Farmers president to run. The full list of candidates for both electorates is published at vote.nz.

McDonald has farmed in northern Southland for more than 40 years and served on the regional council from 2019 to 2025. Herrick, a former sharemilker near Lumsden, led Southland Federated Farmers from 2024.

What to expect at the booth

Chief electoral officer Karl Le Quesne said voters could find their nearest voting place at vote.nz, and that lists were often displayed at local supermarkets during the advance period.

Campaigning is permitted during advance voting but not inside voting places or within 10 metres of their entrances. Voters are asked not to film or photograph inside, and the commission recommends taking an EasyVote card to speed things up.

Nationally, the commission has set up more than 220 Māori community voting places, 67 of them bilingual, and 1679 fully accessible voting places. Mobile voting services will visit smaller and remote communities during the advance period, and the number of rural voting places is similar to 2023.

Voting closes at 7pm on 7 November.