Post the ASA Annual General Meeting, a series of significant changes have been wrought for the purpose of improving participation, which is a major factor affecting elections when figures released by the Ministry of Social Development annual social report indicate that only 77% of the population voted in the 2005 general election and only 44% in the recent local body elections.

The major changes are as follows:

Nominations

This year nominations will be open for two weeks. This gives more time for people to think about running for election. However, there is an incentive for those who want to get campaigning quickly. If you are nominated by the end of the first week of nominations you can attend a special pre-campaign briefing on the following Wednesday and after that start campaigning. Anyone who is nominated in the second week has to wait until the following week for the campaign briefing meeting.

Group Campaigns

This year group campaigns are officially allowed. All groups must be registered. You are also allowed two volunteers per candidate to help you with your campaign. These people are the only people who are allowed to put up your posters, operate your websites, and campaign on behalf of you.

Voting

This year all voting will be done online and hosted at http://elections.asa.ac.nz no waiting for hours for votes to be counted and the convenience of being able to log on whenever and wherever you like.