Prisoner Disqualification Bill passes 63-59

Paul Quinn’s private member’s bill to ban all prisoners (rather than just those serving terms of greater than three years) from voting passed its first reading by 63 votes to 58.

National and ACT voted in favour. Labour, Maori, United, Greens and Progressive against.

It has been referred to the Law & Order Select Committee, which will hear submissions on it. I would be interested to find out how many prisoners actually do vote, and how many are eligible to vote.