The issue of whether prisoners should have the right to vote (and, if so, which prisoners) has long troubled a number of democracies. The current position in the United Kingdom is that no prisoner serving a custodial sentence after conviction can vote, albeit that the Scottish and Welsh Assemblies currently are taking steps to allow some prisoners to do so in devolved elections (see Neil Johnston, “Prisoners’ voting rights: developments since May 2015”, Commons Briefing papers CBP-7461, Sept. 30, 2019). New Zealand currently mirrors the UK in barring all sentenced prisoners from voting.
However, New Zealand’s Minister of Justice recently announced that the law will be amended before the next general election in late 2020 to enfranchise prisoners serving sentences of less than three years. This change follows sustained criticism of the complete ban on prisoner voting, including a formal judicial declaration that it is inconsistent with the right…
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Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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