KEY POINTS:
Most Kiwis would be appalled if any significant portion of our community was excluded from voting in the upcoming election.
But unless we make more of an effort to include New Zealanders living overseas, we risk disenfranchising a significant number of our people.
New Zealand citizens can vote from anywhere in the world as long as they've been in New Zealand within the past three years. Yet in 2005 only 28,000 New Zealanders living overseas voted - out of half a million who were probably eligible.
Just how significant is this group of New Zealanders? The answer is very significant indeed. The OECD estimates that 16 per cent - one in six - of all Kiwis live abroad.
After Ireland, we have the biggest proportion of our population living overseas in the developed world.
We know from research among the members of Kea New Zealand (our country's most active overseas network) that around 90 per cent of New Zealanders living overseas are eligible to vote.
This means that, unless participation is increased, more than 500,000 Kiwis may be disenfranchised. That's a very significant chunk of our population.
Kea New Zealand is leading the charge to change this. Our Every Vote Counts campaign makes it simple for Kiwis overseas to enrol. Within days of launching our initiative, the rate of overseas enrolments quadrupled. But we can't do it alone.
The missing voters are not just hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders. They're your sister in Melbourne, your uncle in New York, your son in Dubai or your granddaughter in London - all of whom call New Zealand home, most of whom will come back here to live, and all of whom should have their say in shaping the country.
Everyone in New Zealand can help. We can all phone or email Kiwis overseas reminding them that they are eligible, and how easy it is to enrol and vote from overseas.
The website (right) has all the information they need to get them started. Voting from overseas is simple. Kiwis abroad can update their enrolment details online, download voting papers, and return all the paperwork by mail or fax. There is no need to visit an embassy or consulate to enrol and vote.
Research among Kea's members shows a strong appetite to participate if they have the information and access to resources they need.
Some 58 per cent said they wanted to vote (whether or not they were enrolled) and another 30 per cent answered "maybe" or "probably" to the question of whether they wanted to vote.
Taxpayers fund extensive programmes to encourage New Zealanders to enrol to vote, and to participate in this centrepiece of our democracy. But it is tough persuading Kiwis living abroad to vote. So we should all help.
The more of our citizens who vote - whether from home or from overseas - the more the result will reflect the democratic views of all New Zealanders.
How the election turns out is for New Zealanders to decide - but let's make sure it's all New Zealanders making that decision.
Please, call or email someone you know overseas and tell them we still care what they think.
* Ivan Moss is CEO of Kea New Zealand, "a network of Kiwi expats and friends of New Zealand".
