Archive · Official results
How special votes changed New Zealand’s two 2020 referendum margins
New Zealand backed the End of Life Choice proposal and rejected the cannabis proposal in 2020. Special ballots narrowed the cannabis No lead from 167,950 to 67,662.
Sources checked
End of Life Choice Yes
Shared scale · 0% to 65.17%
Cannabis Yes
Shared scale · 0% to 65.17%
Switch between the two referendum questions to see Yes shares for ordinary votes, special votes and the combined result.
Two separate choices on election day
The Electoral Commission asked one question about bringing the End of Life Choice Act 2019 into force and another about supporting the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill. Each official result recorded 2,908,071 ballots, with different numbers of informal votes. The commission released the final counts on 6 November 2020. Source 1
Cannabis special ballots cut the No lead
The ordinary vote put No ahead by 167,950 on the cannabis question. Special ballots gave Yes a 100,288 lead, with 292,394 Yes and 192,106 No. Combining the two groups left No ahead by 67,662. The cannabis Yes share was 46.13% among ordinary ballots and 59.46% among special ballots, including informal votes in both denominators. Source 2 Source 3 Source 1
End of Life Choice had a Yes lead in both groups
The End of Life Choice Yes share was 65.17% among ordinary ballots and 64.77% among special ballots. Special votes added 155,898 to the raw Yes margin. The combined margin was 914,211, with 1,893,290 Yes and 979,079 No. Source 2 Source 3 Source 1
Why the two questions have different informal totals
The official results show 35,702 informal votes for End of Life Choice and 26,463 for cannabis. The Electoral Commission counts those ballots in its percentage denominator. That explains why Yes and No shares add to less than 100% in the official result. The national table reconciles each category independently. Source 1