In this submission, we support the measures that the Electoral Commission has taken to in recent years to increase electoral participation amongst the disabled community across Aotearoa. DPA remains concerned however that some disabled people are not voting due to the barriers some within our community experience when doing so.
In this submission we highlight some things that have improved, and we make recommendations around removing barriers to voting by disabled people so that any changes can be implemented by Parliament and the Electoral Commission ahead of the 2026 General Election.
In doing so, we cast a disability lens over the three focus areas of the inquiry:
- election operations
- electoral law
- long-term trends in elections.
Our submission also draws upon relevant recommendations contained in the report of the Independent Election Review Panel “Our Recommendations for a Fairer, Clearer, and More Accessible Electoral System” (2024).
Read DPA’s submission on the Parliamentary Inquiry into the 2023 General Election (Word).