2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, August
After a week of postponement, the New York Yankees and the New York Mets clashed in the Subway Series. This was the Yankees first five-game series of the season, and due to the restrictions of the shortened the season, this series was played in just three days, featuring two doubleheaders. The Yankees lost both games in the first doubleheader by scores of 6-4 and 4-3 respectively. The second leg of the doubleheader featured a Mets walk-off against the Yankees, resulting in both a loss and a blown save for the Yankees veteran closer Aroldis Chapman.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, August
The two consecutive losses to start the series gave the Yankees their longest losing streak of the season at seven games. However, the following game the Yankees bounced back to win 2–1, a game in which Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman was able to rebound and record his first win of the season. Infielder DJ LeMahieu made his return from injury as well. The closing doubleheader featured two Yankees wins. Gio Urshela issued the walk-off drive in the first game, while catcher Gary Sánchez rifled a go-ahead grand slam in the second game. The Yankees won the series 3-2 after dropping the first two.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, August
To close out the month of August, the Yankees hosted the sizzling hot Tampa Bay Rays, who had won 19 of their last 22 games. The Rays took game one of the three-game series by a score of 5-3 and handed Gerrit Cole his second straight loss, putting him at 4–2 on the season. Luke Voit provided a bright spot in this game, hitting his 13th home run and tying him for the major league lead. The Yankees were able to stunt the Rays' hot streak in game two of the series, winning 5–3.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, August
DJ LeMahieu roped two home runs and Yankees pitcher Masahiro Tanaka notched his first win of the season. Closer Aroldis Chapman threw a 101 mph fastball at Rays hitter Michael Brosseau at the end of this game as well, inciting both teams' benches to clear. Following the scuffle of game 2, the Yankees lost the final game of the series, 5–2, as Rays hitter Michael Brosseau got his revenge, hitting two home runs off Yankees pitchers. The Yankees lost this series 2–1, now losing all three of their series' against the division rival Tampa Bay Rays.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
Now more than halfway through the season, the Yankees crossed New York City to take on the New York Mets in their final exchange of the season. It was a quick one-game series in which the Mets had a late-game comeback and ultimately won in extra innings. Mets slugger Pete Alonso hit a home run in the bottom of the 10th inning, which handed the Yankees a 9–7 loss. The Yankees and the Mets played a total of six games against each other, with this Mets win tying the season series at 3–3.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
After their one-game spat against the Mets, the Yankees took on the Baltimore Orioles for the second time this season. Going into the series, the Yankees and the Orioles had opposite records, with the Yankees standing at 20–16, and the Orioles at 16–20. The first two games of the four-game series were a doubleheader, with the Yankees winning the first 6–5 and dropping the second 6–3. Both Miguel Andújar and Clint Frazier had clutch hits in the final inning of the first game to secure the win.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
The Orioles curbed the Yankees offense in game two, holding the team to a combined four hits. Game three was another loss for the Yankees and the third consecutive loss for Gerrit Cole despite his ten strikeouts and one earned run. The Yankees lost this game 6-1 and would lose the next one 5-1 due to their lackluster offense.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
40 games into the abridged 60-game season, the Yankees were met by the surging Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays held a one-game advantage over the Yankees in the AL East, and were making a playoff run through the dog days of the season. Despite the Yankees' bats coming back to life, the Yankees lost game one of the series 12–7 in a defenseless game. Yankees reliever Adam Ottavino had a disastrous outing, allowing six earned runs without recording an out.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
Game 2 in the series featured a lot less offense from both teams, however the Yankees dropped this one as well by a score of 2-1 and extending their five-game losing streak. The Yankees won the final game of the series 7–2, showing both their hitting and pitching come to life. Shortstop Gleyber Torres drove in 4 runs and rookie pitcher Deivi García earned his first major league win, pitching 7 innings and giving up two earned runs. After losing this series, the Yankees boasted a 22–21 record and were caught sitting at the edge of the playoff bubble.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
Heading into the middle of September, the Yankees tangoed with the Baltimore Orioles one last time. After losing their last series to the Orioles, the Yankees responded with a resounding four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium. Game one was 6–0 shutout win by the Yankees lead by Gerrit Cole, who was back to his winning ways,  improving to 5–3 on the season. The Yankees offense provided three home runs, accounting for five runs. Game two had a similar outcome, as the Yankees won 10–1, powered by offensive slugger Luke Voit.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
Voit hit a pair of three-run home runs and accounted for six of the ten Yankees RBIs. This was home run 15 and 16 for Voit, moving him up the leaderboard for most home runs in MLB. In game three, the Yankees scraped out a 2–1 win in extra innings, with Luke Voit being the hero again, hitting a game-winning sacrifice fly in the 10th inning. In the Yankees' last game against the Orioles, they walked away with a 3–1 victory. Gleyber Torres punched a go-ahead double in the 8th, securing the series sweep for the Yankees.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
With the Yankees now sitting at 26–21, they took on the Toronto Blue Jays for their second of three meetings that season. The Blue Jays were a half-game ahead of the Yankees in their division, with just over 10 games left in the season. With a lot of playoff implications on the line, the Yankees completed back-to-back sweeps, beating the Jays substantially in all three series games. The Yankees won game one 20–6 in what was their highest scoring game of the season.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
DJ LeMahieu, Luke Voit, and Gary Sánchez combined for 14 of the Yankees 20 runs, while Deivi García continued his high-performance pitching, logging seven innings and allowing three earned runs. The following game had a very similar storyline, with the Yankees winning 13–2. Both DJ LeMahieu and Luke Voit carried the offense with addition to a five-RBI performance by catcher Kyle Higashioka. Gerrit Cole went 7 innings, striking out 8 and allowing one earned run.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
The final game of the series was a 10–7 victory for the Yankees and featured plenty of Yankee star power as the team hit five home runs in one inning. Completing the series sweep put the Yankees on an eight-game winning streak and ahead of the Blue Jays in their division. The Yankees also became the first team since 1901 to hit six or more home runs in each of three consecutive games.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
With 10 games left in the season, the Yankees faced a familiar foe in the Boston Red Sox. The Red Sox had been very successful in the past couple years, but now sat at the bottom of the AL East with a 19–32 record. Game one of the series was a positive sign for the Yankees as their two all-stars Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton were back from injury. In a very tight game, the Yankees pushed ahead in extra innings, winning the game 6–5. Game 2 showed an all-around performance from the Yankees, winning 8–0.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
The Yankees offense provided 11 hits and pitcher J. A. Happ had his best performance of the season, going 8 innings, 0 earned runs and 9 strikeouts. The Yankees win streak was now at 10 games. However, in the last game of the series, the Red Sox rebounded for a 10–2 win over the Yankees. Deivi García had a shaky outing, giving up six earned runs in 3 innings. Despite this loss, the Yankees had clinched a playoff birth for the 4th consecutive year. The Yankees and the Red Sox played 10 games over the course of the season with the Yankees winning nine of them, asserting themselves over their long-time division rivals.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
In the penultimate series of the season, the Yankees and the Toronto Blue Jays met for the final time of the season. The Yankees had just come off clinching a playoff spot, while the Blue Jays, sitting at 27–26, were right on the playoff fringe. The Yankees lost game one of the four-game series by a score of 11–5. Yankees pitcher Michael King got the start, going 2.2 innings and giving up 5 earned runs. Game 2 went in favor of the Yankees who won 12–1.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
A 15-hit game from the Yankees offense as well as one of Gerrit Cole's strongest performances gave the Yankees the win. In his final start of the season, Cole went for seven innings, gave up one earned run and struck out seven, earning him a 7–3 record atop a 2.84 ERA in his first year with the Yankees. The Yankees lost their last two games to the Blue Jays, 14-1 and 4-1 respectively. The Yankees went 1–3 in the final series against the Blue Jays, giving the Yankees a 32–25 record and a playoff spot already on lock.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
In the final series of the 2020 MLB season, the Yankees play the Miami Marlins both the first and last time. The Miami Marlins were also playoff contenders and were playing must-win baseball to make the postseason. With the Yankees already owning their playoff birth, there was less of an implication for them in these final regular season games. The Yankees lost game 1 of the series 4–3 in a very tight game. The Yankees lost, and the Marlins secured a playoff birth. The Yankees won game two of the series 11–4. Starting their offensive display.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
Luke Voit powered his league leading 22nd home run and DJ LeMahieu continued to impress with a four hit night and a .359 batting average overall. Rookie pitcher Deivi García was also able to notch his third win before the season ended. The Yankees final game of the season was a 5-0 loss.


2020 New York Yankees season, Regular season, Transactions, September
DJ LeMahieu recorded another multi-hit game, bumping his season average to .364 and earning himself the American League Batting Title, while Luke Voit's 22 home runs earned himself the American League Home Run Title. Voit and LeMahieu were the first teammates to lead the MLB in home runs and batting average since 1959. The Yankees finished the season with a 33–27 and earned the fifth seed in the American League postseason.


2020 New York Yankees season, Game log, Regular season
On August 13, the Yankees were supposed to play against the Chicago White Sox in the first MLB at Field of Dreams game in Dyersville, Iowa. But due to the pandemic and the MLB commissioner implementing the same division match ups (for example AL Central vs. NL Central) to restrict travel for the shortened season, the St. Louis Cardinals took their spot in the game before the Cardinals had their COVID-19 outbreak which pushed back the game to 2021. MLB announced on November 23 that the Yankees will face White Sox on August 12, 2021.


2020 New York Yankees season, Game log, Regular season
Note: Attendance number not shown, as all games were played behind closed doors.


2020 New York Yankees season, Finances
For 2020 Team Marketing Report has calculated 5 billion in losses for Major League Baseball. TMR estimated that the New York Yankees lost $437 million in revenue as a result of not having fans attend games.


2020 New York state elections
In 2020, the State of New York held primary elections and general elections for various offices, including president of the United States, the House of Representatives, the New York State Senate, and the New York State Assembly.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election
The 2020 election in New York's 22nd congressional district was part of the 2020 United States House of Representatives elections in the state. The major-party candidates were Democratic incumbent Anthony Brindisi and Republican Claudia Tenney, with a third-party candidate, Libertarian Keith Price, also participating. In the 2018 House race in this district, Brindisi unseated the freshman incumbent Tenney by a margin of less than 1 percent. The rematch was expected to be just as competitive.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election
The COVID-19 pandemic forced the candidates to adjust their campaign activities, holding many via videoconference. Due to the pandemic, New York State allowed any voter in the 2020 primaries and general election to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail: pandemic precautions also slowed poll operations and canvassing. At the close of polls on November 3, Tenney led by 28,000 votes, but up to 70,000 absentee ballots remained to be returned. As the absentee ballots were counted, Tenney's lead shrank to around 100 votes by November 20.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election
Errors by boards of elections in the district came to light in late November. Many of the boards were found to have marked disputed ballots in a way inconsistent with state election law. The Oneida County Board of Elections used sticky notes to mark disputed ballots, and those notes came unstuck from the ballots and attached themselves to other ballots, an incident called "Stickygate" by the media.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election
Oneida County was later revealed to have made two more serious errors: it incorrectly rejected 700 absentee ballots that should have been accepted under state election law, and failed to process 2,418 voter registration applications before Election Day. The other county Boards of Elections were also found to have made errors affecting dozens of ballots. In two separate instances, Chenango County misplaced absentee ballots and found them later.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election
After a partial recount of contested ballots, Tenney was declared the winner on February 5 by 109 votes, or 0.03 percent of the vote. Brindisi conceded three days later, and Tenney was sworn in on February 11, a month after the start of the 117th Congress and 100 days after Election Day.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election
Both commissioners of the Oneida County Board of Elections were forced to resign. The federal Department of Justice later sued the county over its errors. Despite the multiple errors, no evidence of voter fraud was found in court; instead, the errors seemed to result from incompetence. Many Trump-aligned Republicans saw this race as a case of attempted voter fraud and connected it to Trump's claims of voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election. Republicans also pointed to recent changes in election law that stressed the state's electoral system and may have caused the errors. Legislators and activists of all political alignments proposed reforms in response to the events of this election.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Background
New York's 22nd congressional district is in upstate New York. Since the 2013 redistricting, it stretches from the eastern end of Lake Ontario to the Pennsylvania border. It contains rural and urban areas, including the cities of Utica, Rome, Cortland, and Binghamton, the entirety of the counties of Chenango, Cortland, Madison, and Oneida Counties, and parts of the counties of Broome, Herkimer, Oswego, and Tioga. At the time of the election it had a Cook Partisan Voting Index of R+6. Republican Richard L. Hanna held the district until his retirement in 2017, after which it began to be considered a swing district. Brindisi is a resident of Utica, and Tenney lives in New Hartford, a southern suburb of Utica.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Background
Tenney won the 2016 House race with 44 percent of the vote, beating Democrat Kim Myers and independent candidate Martin Babinec. In her freshman term she made herself known as a close ally of President Trump. The Democratic Party nominated Brindisi, then a member of the New York State Assembly, to run against Tenney in the 2018 race. This race was predicted to be very close: it was noted as vulnerable by both the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and National Republican Congressional Committee, and Politico included it in their top 10 House races.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Background
After a few weeks' delay to count absentee ballots, Brindisi was announced the winner by 0.9 percent of the vote. This win was part of a nationwide blue wave, and this district was the most Republican district to flip in 2018. In the House, Brindisi co-chaired the Blue Dog Coalition and was a member of the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Background
On September 30, 2019, Tenney announced her candidacy for the 2020 race, setting up a rematch with Brindisi. The race was expected to once again be highly competitive.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Primaries
Brindisi did not face a primary challenge. Libertarian candidate Keith Price was unopposed for his party's nomination.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Primaries, Republican primary
With 2 years of congressional experience and an endorsement from Trump, Tenney was the front-runner in the primary. Tenney faced criticism from her primary opponents for the controversy she attracted while in Congress, her electoral failure in 2018, and her refusal to participate in primary debates. Phillips and Tenney had previously faced off in the 2016 primary, in which Phillips came in third.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Primaries, Republican primary
Due to COVID-19, Governor Andrew Cuomo issued an executive order allowing allowing vote by mail for any voter who wished to do so. Postage-paid absentee ballots were mailed automatically to any registered voter who was eligible to vote in a contested primary. New York's primary election night was June 23rd, postponed from its usual date. Calling back to the 2018 race and foreshadowing the general election to come, absentee ballots ate away some of Tenney's lead after election night. Still, she won handily, by a margin of 19.2% over Phillips. Phillips conceded the next day.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Campaign
Brindisi was initially opposed to efforts to impeach Trump, calling them divisive. However, he eventually supported the impeachment inquiry and voted in favor of the first impeachment of Donald Trump. Republican-aligned groups had been running ads in the district targeting Brindisi and the Democratic Party during the impeachment inquiry, and these ads intensified after Brindisi's vote. The Brindisi campaign began running ads at the end of January. Despite this campaign activity, Brindisi did not formally launch his campaign until February 24th.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Campaign
Normal campaign activities were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, starting in March. NY state government responses to the pandemic such as stay-at-home orders and bans on large gatherings prevented canvassing and campaign events. Fundraising became difficult during March and April due to the COVID-19 recession. Most campaigns found themselves suddenly changing their strategy due the crisis. Shortly following lockdown in his district, Brindisi self-quarantined after fellow Blue Dog Ben McAdams tested positive. However, he did not contract COVID himself. The new crisis largely knocked Trump's impeachment out of the conversation, replaced by healthcare, unemployment, and revenue loss.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Campaign
In response to the George Floyd protests, both candidates expressed support for the police. Brindisi cosponsored a bill called the "Defund Cities that Defund the Police Act", which died in committee. He also ran campaign ads where he appeared with the Oneida County Sheriff. The Tenney campaign ran an ad criticizing Brindisi's attendance of a June rally for George Floyd. Tenney received endorsements from police unions in the state and district, who generally supported Republicans in this election cycle.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Campaign
The presidential race influenced down-ballot campaigning. Brindisi endorsed Biden in the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, incurring criticism from the Tenney campaign. Donald Trump Jr. appeared at a virtual event for Tenney in June. Joint events to support Trump and Tenney were held by local supporters in Central New York.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Campaign
As of the end of September, the Brindisi campaign had raised a total of $5.2 million, and the Tenney campaign $1.9 million. Spending for both candidates was dwarfed by outside spending: the Center for Responsive Politics ranked the race 4th in the nation for spending by outside groups. Those groups spent $10.4 million on ads against Brindisi and $7.3 million on ads against Tenney, with ads supporting either candidate amounting to less than a million each. The NRCC spent $3.3 million on ads in the district, and the Congressional Leadership Fund spent $2.2 million. According to the Wesleyan Media Project, more campaign ads had been shown in the district than any other House district in the country that year.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Campaign, Debates
Due to COVID-19 precautions, there were no in-person audiences for these debates. Tenney and Brindisi also debated privately at a virtual editorial board meeting of the Syracuse Post-Standard on October 9th, before it issued its editorial endorsements.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election
Bills passed in August allowed any voter in New York to request an absentee ballot and vote by mail in the general election. It also added provisions for voters to "cure" rejected absentee ballots. More than half of poll workers from previous elections in New York State were over the age of 60 and vulnerable to COVID, and many chose not to work the 2020 general election, creating a shortage of poll workers.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election
Early voting ran from October 24 to November 1, ending two days before Election Day. The House election shared the ballot with the presidential race, state assembly and senate races, and local races; New York did not have a federal senate race that year. After the polls closed, Tenney led Brindisi by around 28,000 votes, but more than 70,000 absentee ballots had been mailed to voters, and only 45,000 of those had been returned at the time. By state law, any absentee ballot postmarked by Election Day and received by November 10 would be counted. In addition, the government offices of Chenango County were recovering from a ransomware attack. While the Chenango County Board of Elections said that the attack was not election-related and would not affect voting, it did delay tabulation and reporting.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election
Tenney filed suit for judicial oversight of the absentee ballot count. Other candidates in the area, both Republican and Democrat, had done so in other races. The request came before New York Supreme Court Justice Scott DelConte in Oswego. Justice DelConte allowed the absentee ballot count to begin on the 10th, under the court's supervision. As absentee ballots were counted, Tenney's lead evaporated. By the 20th, Tenney's lead had shrunk to around 100 votes. Justice DelConte ordered the counties to provide final vote totals and disputed ballots by November 23.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Problems began to come to light starting on the 23rd. New York election law states that to dispute a ballot, "an inspector of the opposite party shall write in ink upon the back of the ballot a memorandum of the ruling and objection." However, several counties marked disputed ballots differently than required by law. Oswego and Oneida County instead applied a color-coded sticky note to each disputed ballot. When Oneida County transported the ballots to the courtroom, some notes came unstuck from their ballot. Some ballots had no note, one had a clearly incorrect note, and one had two notes.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Fewer than 200 ballots were affected. When Justice DelConte asked the Oneida County commissioners how to determine which ballots were counted or contested, they admitted it was now impossible, which the judge called "a serious problem." The Madison County Board of Elections used a spreadsheet to store information on disputed ballots instead of marking them, but the judge was unable to match the ballots with the spreadsheet. Justice DelConte ordered a recess until after the Thanksgiving holiday break. In addition to the errors discovered, three voters from Madison County were found to have legally submitted their absentee ballots but then died before Election Day: under New York election law, these were rejected.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Anticipating a lengthy legal process, Brindisi retained Perkins Coie, often regarded as the premier Democratic election law firm. Later Marc Elias, chief counsel for many high-profile Democratic campaigns and recounts, would join Brindisi's legal team.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Based on ballot totals submitted to the court on November 24, Brindisi appeared to have taken the lead by a margin of 12 or 13 votes. A week later Herkimer County corrected a tabulation error in its totals, which gave Tenney a margin of 12 votes. Justice DelConte and Brindisi's legal team expressed concern about this sudden discovery and how it was announced. Then, on December 1, Chenango County stated in court that it had discovered 55 unopened absentee ballots that appeared to have been mislaid. 11 of those were from non-registered voters and rejected.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
At the beginning of December, the focus narrowed to 809 disputed absentee and affidavit ballots. Tenney's counsel moved to conclude the legal proceedings and declare her the winner, arguing that the records and documentation of the initial canvass were inadequate for the judge to make any rulings on those ballots. Brindisi's counsel argued that the judge had broad powers to order a limited recanvass, and asked for the disputed ballots to be reviewed "in a public hearing with watchers present" in order to create a uniform record.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Brindisi's counsel also asked for the unopened Chenango County ballots to be included in that hearing. Justice DelConte was critical of both arguments, saying that Tenney's lawyers were proposing to accept results known to be inaccurate, and Brindisi's lawyers were asking for a recount restricted to those areas where he was likely to gain votes. Further complicating matters, an Oneida County election worker tested positive for COVID, and was likely to have exposed the rest of the office. While much of the proceedings were being conducted via Zoom videoconferencing, this limited the office's capacity to perform a recount.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
On December 8, DelConte ordered a recount of the disputed absentee and affidavit ballots in all counties. In total, more than 2,600 ballots were subject to the recount, most of them affidavit ballots. 1,500 of the affidavit ballots were rejected by Oneida County alone: the Brindisi campaign held that 700 of those were valid because the voters were registered at other addresses or did not fill out a part of the affidavit ballot that could be easily verified. The Oneida County commissioners admitted that they did not follow a 2019 "registration portability" law that provided for a voter's registration to move with them if they move within New York State, even between different counties. These votes were eventually included in the count.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
The recount process was painstaking, examining individual ballots closely. One ballot received attention due to a stain that may have been either blood or chocolate. Tenney's lawyers claimed that if it was blood the ballot was traceable to the voter via DNA profiling, so it should be disqualified. Brindisi's lawyers countered that nearly every ballot carried the voter's fingerprints. Chenango County found 12 more ballots in an office drawer: Tenney's lead nudged up to 19 after the all the mislaid Chenango County ballots were counted. New challenges were raised to 67 Madison County ballots.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Justice DelConte called for the counties to wrap it up before the start of the next Congress, but Oneida County's recount proceeded more slowly than expected. As Oneida County's recount progressed, Brindisi briefly gained a 14-vote lead, but Tenney regained a 29-vote margin at the end of the year. A recess was called for the last week of December, although Oneida County continued their recount.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
As it became clear that the next Congress would start with the seat empty, national attention intensified. A bipartisan team from the House came to observe. The Trump family had already been drawing parallels between this race and their claims of voter fraud in the presidential race. Republicans began an aggressive fundraising campaign for Tenney, accusing Brindisi and Democrats of voter fraud. Democrats began a counter-fundraiser. Trump mentioned the recount in a rally on January 5, implying that the election officials fabricated votes.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Deliberations continued in the new year. A 2020 reform prevents ballots from being rejected due to minor technical violations, as long as they demonstrate "substantial compliance"; the interpretation and scope of that phrase were debated by the Brindisi and Tenney teams. The teams differed on whether to accept affidavit ballots that were left unsealed, or sealed with "I Voted" stickers; due to COVID, some voters and poll workers were reluctant to lick envelopes.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
There was also discussion of voters who missed the deadline to "cure" their ballots; as the change to election law allowing curing was new for that election, the law had not been settled in court yet. Brindisi's team argued in favor of including affidavit ballots that were not signed, ballots from purged voters, and ballots from voters who voted at the wrong polling site, or voted on a ballot with incorrect lower-level races (such as state Senate or state Assembly).


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
This set of arguments from Brindisi's team was considered implausible under New York election law by an election commissioner from neighboring Onondaga County, and met criticism from the judge. Individual ballots continued to be interrogated as well. Brindisi's team estimated that, if each remaining ballot was discussed in court, three weeks or more remained in the proceedings.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Oneida County's largest error came to light in early January, when it was revealed that they had failed to process 2,418 voter registration applications. A clerk at the board testified that they were unable to process most of a batch of 3,000 applications received from the state DMV before the election. The clerk said that despite working nights and weekends they were only able to process 640 of them, and pointed to understaffing and COVID-related issues. At least 63 such voters filled out affidavit ballots; more may have simply left the polls when they found out.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
The Oneida County Democratic Commissioner testified that she was unaware of the DMV application backlog until it was revealed in court. Brindisi's team identified ballots from 69 voters and asked for their inclusion, which Tenney's team called "cherry-picking"; instead, DelConte ordered the county to review more than 1,000 affidavit ballots to determine which ones were from voters whose application was not processed on time, and said all such votes would be counted. Brindisi's team filed an appeal to stop this review; it was denied by Appellate Division Justice Patrick NeMoyer in a private hearing, while leaving the possibility for the results of the review to be appealed. Tenney's lead grew to 122 after the review.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
On January 29, DelConte's clerk sent a letter to a Tenney campaign volunteer warning her that text messages she was sending to the justice's cell phone appeared to be an attempt to improperly influence him, and to cease immediately. The text messages, sent over a period of about a month, urged him to "STOP LOOKING FOR DEMOCRAT VOTES" and accused him of violating the Constitution. The volunteer had obtained DelConte's private number while she was a delegate for the Conservative Party of New York State and DelConte was seeking their endorsement. DelConte never saw these text messages; they were noticed by his clerk. The volunteer said that she played a minor role in the campaign. FEC records show a $75 transaction to Knight from Tenney's campaign in February of 2020 for services as a notary public.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
Nearing the end, the judge rejected Brindisi's team's arguments on including purged voters (85 ballots) and voters who voted in the wrong polling place (128 ballots) or left their vote in a drop box in the wrong district (51 votes). However, he ruled in favor of including 92 absentee ballots from Madison County that Brindisi's team argued for, and for including 62 ballots that the Tenney team questioned whether the signature on the ballot matched the signature on record. This reduced Tenney's lead by a few votes but she remained ahead. Brindisi's team asked to halt the certification, arguing that seating Tenney in Congress would render his appeal moot, but the judge rejected that argument.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
On February 5, DelConte ruled that Tenney had won the election by 109 votes, and ordered the state to certify the results immediately. Brindisi conceded the election three days later and dropped his appeal. Under the Federal Contested Elections Act, Brindisi had the option to ask the House of Representative to intervene in the 30 days following certification. This would have likely required transporting all ballots to Washington for a recount by the General Accountability Office, and would have taken three months or more.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors
In a statement after conceding, he gave his reasons for not continuing the appeal or taking advantage of the FCEA. He said that he felt more voters in his district were exhausted by the presidential election and Trump's claims of voter fraud, and did not want to prolong the race any more. Brindisi also spoke about not wanting to seem divisive, and the fact that the House seat would remain vacant until the recount was settled. He did call for an investigation into the election, as did Justice DelConte in his final statement.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, General election, Errors, Summary of errors
The court proceedings uncovered a number of violations of election law. The only county to come out blameless was Tioga, only a small portion of which is in the district.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
This election was widely considered a fiasco. The errors may have been even worse than revealed in court: a later review found additional affidavit ballots that may have been rejected improperly. Elias pointed out that many elections may have errors like the ones in this election that go unnoticed because their margins were larger and they are subject to less scrutiny. Head of the state senate's elections committee Zellnor Myrie observed that if New York were a swing state, the effect of these errors on the presidential election would have been a national scandal.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
Trump-aligned Republicans saw this election, like the presidential election, as a case of voter fraud. However, no voter fraud was found in the legal proceedings. Other Republicans placed blamed on changes to state election law passed by Democrats, although Judge DelConte disagreed with that being a factor. In his view, the errors in this election were caused by carelessness by the boards of elections.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
Politicians and activists of all political alignments agreed that New York's electoral system needed reform. Tenney described it as "very flawed". Governor Cuomo agreed that the system had flaws, particularly how election commissioners are chosen. Advocates referred to New York's election system as "antiquated" and lacking transparency. Like in other states across the country, various election reforms bills were introduced in the legislature. Some called for more consistency between districts, noting that New York's 58 boards of elections all had different ways of counting and tabulating ballots.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
Others asked for reforms to make it harder for lawyers to raise frivolous challenges to ballots, using the ballot stained with blood or chocolate as an example. The state legislature passed a bill that would require boards of elections to count incoming absentee ballots, and eliminated rules that would disqualify ballots with minor technical mistakes. Another bill would let voters track their absentee ballots on a web portal.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
However, these bills had to compete for attention with other issues in Albany such as COVID and the Andrew Cuomo sexual harassment allegations, so as of August 2021 have not been signed into law. Tenney later formed the House Election Integrity Caucus with co-chair California Representative Mike Garcia, who won his race by only 333 votes. It opposes the For the People Act and other voting laws proposed by Democrats, and promotes laws and efforts to restrict voting and combat voter fraud.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
The 2020 United States House of Representatives elections were difficult for Democrats across the country, with many first-term Democrats losing their seats. Given that the NY-22 vote margin for Trump was 15% in 2016 and 11% in 2020, Brindisi actually performed well: his margin over the presidential vote in his district was among the top 10 among Democratic House candidates that year.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath
This was the third consecutive race for Tenney where she did not receive a majority of votes, and the second of those that she won. Eight other races in 2020 did not produce a winner with a majority: Iowa's 2nd, Iowa's 3rd, Minnesota's 1st, Minnesota's 2nd, Nevada's 3rd, Texas' 24th, Utah's 4th, and Washington's 10th congressional districts. The election in Iowa's 2nd district was decided by a smaller margin of only 6 votes. In that race, Rita Hart did not drop her challenge until March 31, 2021, but the provisional winner of that race was seated at the start of Congress, so media sources generally referred to the election for New York's 22nd as the last contested race to be decided from 2020.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath, House vacancy
Brindisi's term expired on January 3, at the end of the 116th Congress. Tenney was not sworn into the 117th Congress until February 11. The NY-22 seat sat vacant in the interim. As is typical for a vacant congressional seat, Brindisi's congressional staff stayed on in a non-partisan capacity reporting to the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives in order to handle constituent calls and manage cases. As a latecomer to Congress, Tenney missed the initial round of committee assignments and an opportunity to sit on the House Appropriations Committee; she was instead assigned to lower-profile committees.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath, House vacancy
None of the candidates participated in the Electoral College vote count on January 6, nor were they present during the ensuing Capitol attack. During the attack, Tenney tweeted that "deep concerns over election integrity do not justify violence or property destruction." Brindisi condemned the attack and attributed it to Trump's actions. When asked about the second impeachment of Donald Trump, Brindisi said he would have voted to impeach, while Tenney would not have. Later on, Tenney stated that were she in Congress at the time, she "really would've been torn" on whether to vote to certify the election results, and repeated a claim that many of the rioters were not Trump supporters. She would later vote against the January 6 commission.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath, Oneida County Board of Elections
At the beginning of February, the Oneida County Board of Election commissioners—Democrat Carolann Cardone and Republican Rose Grimaldi—were unanimously re-appointed as commissioners by their respective parties. This caused an outcry, since they had been singled out multiple times by the judge during the legal proceedings, and Oneida County was responsible for the most severe errors in the election. Activist organizations had already been calling for Cardone and Grimaldi's resignation; after this reappointment, those organizations were joined by the editorial board of the Syracuse Post-Standard.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath, Oneida County Board of Elections
According to state law, county board of election commissioners can only be removed by the governor, therefore, on February 9, Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente, a Republican, sent a letter to Governor Cuomo asking for Cardone and Grimaldi's removal; Brindisi also agreed that the commissioners should be fired. On the 15th, the New York State Board of Elections called on the commissioners to resign: Cardone resigned that day, and Grimaldi followed the next. In her resignation letter, Grimaldi cited "the COVID-19 pandemic, changes in election law, changing executive orders and limited resources" as challenges during the election, echoing Tenney's narrative.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath, Oneida County Board of Elections
On March 25 the federal Department of Justice notified Oneida County, which contains Utica and Rome, of its intent to sue over violations of the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) that were revealed during the recount. In the notification, the DOJ alleged that the Oneida County Board of Elections failed to process at least 2,400 voter registration applications that had been submitted by the deadline, and improperly rejected hundreds of affidavit ballots. Tenney called the suit a "shakedown" and speculated that it was an attempt to cast doubt on her win. On July 12, the DOJ announced that it had reached a settlement with Oneida County. The settlement requires the Board of Elections to implement policies and procedures to ensure compliance with the NVRA and HAVA, and to periodically submit reports to the DOJ to demonstrate compliance.


2020 New York's 22nd congressional district election, Aftermath, Oneida County Board of Elections
Electoral commissioners in New York State are subject to very few requirements, and the positions are often given out as party patronage. Proposals for reforming boards of elections included term limits, state funding, the option to bring in state workers to assist a Board of Election under stress, adding basic job requirements such as a college degree and relevant experience, and the abolition of the present system of political appointees in favor of permanent civil service positions.


2020 New York's 27th congressional district special election
A special election was held to fill the remainder of the term in the United States House of Representatives for New York's 27th congressional district in the 116th United States Congress. Incumbent Republican Representative Chris Collins resigned from the House effective October 1, 2019, following his guilty plea to federal insider trading charges. The election was originally scheduled for April 28, 2020, but was postponed until June 23, 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.


2020 New York's 27th congressional district special election, Candidates
Former Grand Island town supervisor and 2018 Democratic congressional nominee Nathan D. McMurray was expected to be the nominee after being endorsed by the Erie County Democratic Party. Fellow Democrat Melodie Baker announced her interest in seeking the nomination, but quickly withdrew when her campaign failed to gain interest. McMurray was formally nominated on February 13, 2020.


2020 New York's 27th congressional district special election, Candidates
On January 25, 2020, the Republican chairs of the eight counties that make up the 27th congressional district met in Wyoming County and voted to endorse state senator Chris Jacobs for the special election.


2020 New York's 27th congressional district special election, Candidates
On February 1, 2020, the Conservative Party of New York State announced that it would not endorse a candidate in the anticipated special election and would instead leave its party line blank. The Party's preferred candidate was Beth Parlato.


2020 New York's 27th congressional district special election, Candidates, Green Party, Endorsee
Per a Facebook Messenger comment from Erie County Greens: "We did endorse him, but the endorsement was withdrawn after he made several posts on social media that many felt were problematic. He is still on the ballot as a Green because there is no way to remove him, but the State Party has stopped assisting/promoting his campaign."


2020 New York's 27th congressional district special election, General election, Debate
McMurray and Jacobs participated in a debate on June 9, in which McMurray criticized Jacobs for not standing up to Trump's actions, in particular, Trump's claim that a 75-year-old man injured by police in Buffalo could be an "ANTIFA provocateur". McMurray also accused Jacobs of trying to buy the position, lying, and not supporting the Black Lives Matter movement. He emphasized his continued positive impact on communities in the area, positioning himself as an alternative to former Republican representatives Chris Collins and Chris Lee, both of whom resigned due to scandals. Jacobs criticized McMurray for supporting big government and abortion, which he saw as a poor fit for the conservative values of the district.


2020 New Zealand Athletics Championships
The 2020 New Zealand Athletics Championships was the national championship in outdoor track and field for New Zealand. It was held from 6–8 March at Ngā Puna Wai Sports Hub in Christchurch. The 10,000 metres was held separately on 21 March while the half marathon took place on 5 April.


2020 New Zealand Derby
The 2020 New Zealand Derby was a Group I horse race which took place at Ellerslie Racecourse on Saturday 29 February 2020. It was the 145th running of the New Zealand Derby, and it was won by Sherwood Forest.


2020 New Zealand Derby
Sherwood Forest was bred by the Goodson & Perron Family Trust and was sold for A$100,000 at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. He is owned by the Goodson & Perron Family Trust, Calder Bloodstock Ltd and Deborah Martin. Sherwood Forest is trained by Tony Pike in Cambridge, New Zealand.


2020 New Zealand Derby
Sherwood Forest had made an impact in the spring, winning two races including the War Decree Stakes at Group Three level in October, and he also finished third in the New Zealand 2000 Guineas in November. But trainer Tony Pike believed he would come into his own over longer distances later in the season.


2020 New Zealand Derby
The 2020 Derby had been billed as a two-horse battle of the sexes. The filly Two Illicit had scored a seven-length win in the Waikato Guineas, while the well-bred gelding Dragon Leap easily won the Avondale Guineas. They disputed favouritism throughout the two weeks leading into the Derby, and no other runner was in single-figure odds.


2020 New Zealand Derby
Coming around the home turn, that two-horse showdown appeared to be happening as Dragon Leap and Two Illicit surged to the lead together. But Sherwood Forest stayed with them and began to poke through in between them. Ridden by Melbourne-based jockey Michael Walker, his stamina shone through as he pulled clear in the last 200 metres to win by a length and a quarter. Two Illicit held on for second, with the fast-finishing Scorpz snatching third from a tiring Dragon Leap.


2020 New Zealand Derby
The time for the Derby was 2:26.77, which was the fastest since 1998 and the third-fastest since 1972.


2020 New Zealand Derby
It was a third Derby victory for Walker, who had previously won on Military Move in 2010 and on Puccini in 2014.


2020 New Zealand Derby
It was Pike's second Derby, having won the race in 2016 with Rangipo.


2020 New Zealand Derby, Winner's details, Subsequent Group 1 wins
Subsequent wins at Group 1 level by runners in the 2020 New Zealand Derby.


2020 New Zealand Grand Prix
The 2020 New Zealand Grand Prix event for open wheel racing cars was held at Manfeild: Circuit Chris Amon near Feilding on 16 February 2020. It was the sixty-fifth New Zealand Grand Prix and fielded Toyota Racing Series cars. The event also served as the third race of the fifth round of the 2020 Toyota Racing Series, the final race of the series. The race was won by Igor Fraga, who also won the Toyota Racing Series championship in the process.


2020 New Zealand NBL season
The 2020 NBL season (officially known as the 2020 NBL Showdown) was the 39th season of the National Basketball League.


2020 New Zealand NBL season
The regular season was set to commence on Thursday 9 April and end on Sunday 12 July, with the finals then taking place between 16–24 July. However, following the coronavirus outbreak in early to mid March 2020, the season was suspended indefinitely. After two months of deliberation and in the wake of easing coronavirus restrictions, the league announced a revised competition format for 2020 beginning on Tuesday 23 June and ending with the grand final on Saturday 1 August.


2020 New Zealand NBL season
The 2020 season was initially set to feature eight teams following the withdrawal of the Southern Huskies and Super City Rangers and the inclusion of the Franklin Bulls for the first time. However, three of the top four teams in 2019 (Wellington Saints, Hawke's Bay Hawks and Southland Sharks) decided not to enter the modified competition. This left the door open for the inclusion of the Otago Nuggets, a team who were looking to re-enter the league in 2021 for the first time since 2014, and the Huskies. Coinciding with the announcement of a revised 2020 competition, the Huskies franchise relocated from Tasmania to Auckland and became the Auckland Huskies.


2020 New Zealand NBL season
The 2020 season began on 23 June, with all seven teams playing up to three games per week over six weeks. The season concluded on 1 August with the Otago Nuggets defeating the Manawatu Jets in the grand final to win their maiden NBL championship. All teams were based in Auckland, with all games played out of The Trusts Arena.


2020 New Zealand Radio Awards
The 2020 New Zealand Radio Awards are the awards for excellence in the New Zealand radio industry during 2019. It will be the 43rd New Zealand Radio Awards, recognising staff, volunteers and contractors in both commercial and non-commercial broadcasting.


2020 New Zealand Radio Awards
Due to the lockdown measures in place due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was no award ceremony. Instead, the winners were announced on 15 May on the Radio Broadcasters Association's website.


2020 New Zealand Radio Awards, Winners and nominees
This is a list of nominees, with winners in bold.|


2020 New Zealand Sevens
The 2020 New Zealand Sevens was the third tournament within the 2019–20 World Rugby Sevens Series and the twenty first edition of the New Zealand Sevens. This event was the first in the series to only have one team from each pool qualify to the cup knockout phase. Host team New Zealand won the tournament, defeating France by 21–5 in the final.


2020 New Zealand Sevens, Format
The sixteen teams were drawn into four pools of four teams, with each team playing every other team in their pool once. The top team from each pool advanced to the semifinals to playoff for berths in the cup final and third place match.


2020 New Zealand Sevens, Format
The teams that finished second in their respective pool will play another team from another pool whom finished second, however, it will be ranked as the best second placed team v. the second best second placed team and vice versa. This is the first tournament of the 2019–20 season that the format was changed to a four team cup knockout phase.


2020 New Zealand Sevens, Format
The pools and schedule were announced by World Rugby on 20 December 2019.


2020 New Zealand Women's Sevens
The 2020 New Zealand Women's Sevens is a tournament to be held at the Waikato Stadium in Hamilton, New Zealand from 25-26 January 2020. It will be the first edition of the New Zealand Women's Sevens for the World Rugby Women's Sevens Series and will also be the fourth tournament of the 2019–20 World Rugby Women's Sevens Series.


2020 New Zealand Women's Sevens, Format
The teams were drawn into three pools of four teams each. Each team played every other team in their pool once. The top team from each pool and the best second-placed team advanced to the semifinals to playoff for berths in the cup final and third place match. The other teams from each group were paired off for the lower classification matches.


2020 New Zealand Women's Sevens, Teams
Twelve teams will compete in the tournament with eleven being the core teams that compete throughout the entire season. The invited team for this tournament is  China.


2020 New Zealand budget
Budget 2020, dubbed "Rebuilding Together", is  the New Zealand budget for fiscal year 2020/21 worth NZ$50 billion, presented to the House of Representatives by Finance Minister Grant Robertson on 14 May 2020, the third budget presented by the coalition government of 2017–present. This budget occurs during the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand and on the same day that the country exits the lockdown brought about by alert level 3.


2020 New Zealand budget, Background
The 2020 budget was released in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic, which spread to New Zealand in late February 2020. In response to an increase in the number of COVID-19 cases, the country entered into a nationwide lockdown on the evening of 25 March, in which all non-essential businesses were closed. Because of the closure of businesses, the government offered a $12.1 billion wage subsidy scheme to offset employment costs in an attempt to keep as many New Zealanders as possible in their jobs.


2020 New Zealand budget, Background
The original contents of the budget were set aside and replaced with a plan on how New Zealand will recover from the lasting effects of COVID-19, of which this budget is only the first step. Finance Minister Grant Robertson states that the economic recovery for New Zealand will create an extended operating deficit and increase debt to above previous targets, however he points out that New Zealand entered the COVID-19 crisis with a debt of below 20% of GDP compared to the United States with 90% and the United Kingdom with above 75%. The budget expands on the $12 billion New Zealand Upgrade Programme infrastructure project.


2020 New Zealand budget, Major announcements
The 2020 budget included the allocation of NZ$50 billion to the COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund, which would be spent on several areas including a $3.2 billion wage subsidy scheme, business support, trades training support, a $1.1 billion environmental jobs package, $900 million to support Māori, housing, and extending the school lunch programme. $15.9 billion would be spend on rejuvenating the economy while $20.2 billion would be put aside for future investment.


2020 New Zealand budget, Reactions
On 14 May, Leader of the Opposition Simon Bridges described the 2020 budget as the "greatest burden of debt" in New Zealand history and accused the Government of burdening the country's children and grandchildren with NZ$140 billion worth in debt. Business New Zealand chief executive Kirk Hope welcome the 2020 budget's free trades and apprenticeship scheme, describing it as a way of "turbo-charging" the economy. Tourism Industry Aotearoa chief executive Chris Roberts welcomed the NZ$400 million tourism recovery fund and wage subsidy scheme but stated that further extensions were needed to support the tourism sector. Mental Health Foundation chief executive Shaun Robinson welcomed the Budget's investments in addressing family violence, Whānau Ora services and housing, and targeted funding towards Māori.


2020 New Zealand budget, Reactions
The New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (CTU) welcomed the 2020 Budget's efforts to address the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic through wage subsidies, free trades training, and increased health spending and social spending but opined that other issues such as higher wages needed to be tackled. The Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers (ANZASW) welcomed the 2020 budget's investment into aiding disabled people and addressing elder abuse and child abuse but expressed disappointment at the pay gap between social workers in statutory organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs).


2020 New Zealand budget, Reactions
Auckland Action Against Poverty criticised the 2020 budget for not doing enough to aid welfare beneficiaries. Fish & Game New Zealand welcomed the Budget 2020's announcement of NZ$1.1 billion investment to create 11,000 environmental jobs in the regions. The Opportunities Party's leader Geoff Simmons criticised the 2020 budget for prioritising businesses over people and advocated a universal basic income in order to stimulate economic growth.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum
The 2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum was a non-binding referendum held on 17 October 2020 in conjunction with the 2020 general election and a euthanasia referendum, on the question of whether to legalise the sale, use, possession and production of recreational cannabis. It was rejected by New Zealand voters. The form of the referendum was a vote for or against the proposed "Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill". Official results were released by the Electoral Commission on 6 November 2020 with 50.7% of voters opposing the legalisation and 48.4% in support.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum
The results of the cannabis referendum would not have affected the legal status of medicinal cannabis or licensed hemp production, both of which were already legal. They would also not have affected laws regarding driving under the influence of drugs, or workplace health and safety (e.g. being under the influence of cannabis at work).


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Background
Cannabis has been illegal in New Zealand since 1927. Historically, neither of the two biggest political parties in New Zealand, Labour or National have tried to decriminalise or legalise cannabis. The Green Party, which has advocated for drug law reform for many years, secured a commitment to hold a referendum after the 2017 election as part of its confidence and supply agreement with Labour. This agreement followed statements made by the Green Party in December 2016, that if it formed a government in the 2017 election it would legalise the personal production and possession of cannabis for personal use.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Background
In May 2019, a background cabinet paper outlining the options that had been considered for the referendum and the draft legislation was released. The referendum was announced and defended as "binding" by prime minister Jacinda Ardern and justice minister Andrew Little, but as it would not be "self-executing," the bill would still have had to pass a vote in parliament if the referendum returned a "yes" result. Legally the referendum was non-binding and the proposed bill could have been changed in any way before becoming law.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Background, Cannabis laws
Possession of any amount of recreational cannabis is illegal in New Zealand. Cannabis use is controlled under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975 and the maximum sentence for possession of cannabis is 3 months' imprisonment or a $500 fine; although there is a preference against imprisonment. The presumption of supply threshold is 28 grams or 100 joints; above this threshold it is presumed any cannabis possessed is for supply. Cultivation of cannabis carries a maximum penalty of 7 years' imprisonment, while dealing of cannabis carries a maximum penalty of 8 years' imprisonment. Per the tariff case R v Terewi [1999], cultivating cannabis for personal use warrants a community sentence or, if there are aggravating factors, a short-term prison sentence.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Background, Cannabis laws
The Misuse of Drugs Amendment Act 2019 became law on 13 August 2019 and affirmed existing Police discretion of whether prosecution or a health approach is preferable for personal drug possession and use.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Background, Cannabis laws, Medicinal use
On 1 April 2020, Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Regulations 2019 came into effect. This enabled the approval of prescription medicinal psychoactive cannabis products that previously were unavailable, and also the licensing of commercial cultivation of cannabis plants for medicinal use. Approved cannabis-based pharmaceuticals can be prescribed by a specialist doctor, but require patients to meet strict criteria. Prior to the referendum, only Sativex was approved for use in New Zealand. Sativex is not subsidised, so patients must pay the full retail cost. In 2020 the Medicinal Cannabis Scheme significantly modified medicinal access to psychoactive cannabis products, and in March 2021 two new cannabidiol drugs were certified for minimum quality standards.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Background, Cannabis laws, Medicinal use
Terminally ill patients have had a legal defence against prosecution for possessing and consuming cannabis under the Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis) Amendment Act since December 2018.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Referendum structure
In May 2020 the final legislation was made available and it was confirmed that the question put to voters would be:Do you support the proposed Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill?


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Referendum structure, Proposed bill
If passed into law unchanged, the proposed "Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill" would have served as new regulatory framework for the production, sale, purchase and consumption of non-medical cannabis in New Zealand. A new regulatory body, the Cannabis Regulatory Authority would have been established with the primary objectives of promoting the well-being of New Zealanders, reducing cannabis-related harm and reducing the overall use of cannabis over time.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Referendum structure, Proposed bill
The full text of the bill was available, along with a guide, from the New Zealand government's referendums website.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Public opinion
Many polling organisations asked New Zealanders questions related to cannabis legislation. The results were inconsistent, with "different companies producing wildly different results". However, every poll showed a clear split along age lines. Voters aged 18 to 29, Green and Labour party supporters and Māori people were more likely to support cannabis legalisation, while voters aged 50 and over and National party supporters were more likely to oppose cannabis legalisation.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Public opinion
Overall, support for decriminalisation reached a peak of around 65% three years before the referendum, but declined from 54% in February 2020 to around 45% in polls taken a month or so before the referendum. A 2020 study of Twitter users who tweeted about cannabis between July 2009 to August 2020 found that 62% had a positive view of cannabis, with tweets in 2020 having a slightly higher proportion of positive views on cannabis (65.3%), while 53.5% of those who talked about the cannabis referendum were in support of the bill.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Public opinion
Most polling conducted prior to September 2020 asked about opinions on the legalisation of cannabis for personal use, or in some cases, about government control of use and sale of cannabis, rather than about the Legalisation and Control Bill, which was released for public consultation in May 2020. Polls asking about the specific bill showed mixed opinion, from 35% for / 53% against to 49% for / 45% against.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Public opinion
Opinion poll numbers tend to trend higher around support for medicinal use of cannabis. When voting age New Zealanders were asked in July 2017 if they supported "growing and/or using cannabis for medical reasons if you have a terminal illness", 59% responded that it should be legal, 22% supported decriminalisation, while 15% responded it should be illegal. However, when they were asked their thoughts on "Possessing a small amount of cannabis for personal use", 37% responded that it should be decriminalised, 31% responded that it should be illegal, and 28% responded that it should be fully legal.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate
Leading up to the referendum, much media attention was paid to the upcoming vote, and to arguments for and against the legalisation of cannabis in New Zealand. Proponents of the bill focused largely on the inefficacy of prohibition, and the prevalence of black market cannabis in New Zealand, while opponents argued that the legislation would allow greater access to the drug, especially for children.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments for reform, Prohibition being ineffective
The New Zealand Drug Foundation (NZDF), a pro-reform charitable trust, said that 80% of New Zealanders have tried cannabis by age 21, but only 10% of the population become heavy users. The NZDF reported that New Zealanders consume around 74 tonnes of cannabis a year, and that each year, the New Zealand Police spend over 330,000 hours on cannabis enforcement which costs the taxpayer almost $200 million. NZDF suggested that legalisation would free up police to focus on more serious drug crimes.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments for reform, Disproportionate impact on Māori
The NZDF also argued that there is a significant underground market for cannabis and that prohibition disproportionately criminalizes Māori. According to the NZDF, Māori are three times more likely to get a cannabis conviction than non-Māori for the same level of cannabis use, are twice as likely as non-Māori to suffer a substance use disorder and find it harder to access health and treatment services. The NZDF suggested that Cannabis Legalisation and Control Bill would largely eliminate the black market for cannabis and reduce the number of young Māori receiving convictions by enabling Māori participation in a regulated legal market, and providing for Māori representation on the body charged with developing national cannabis policy.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments for reform, Disproportionate impact on Māori
It was independently reported that 79% of Māori supported the Bill.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments for reform, Employment & tax intake
Studies conducted by independent consultancy Business and Economic Research Limited indicate the annual tax intake from cannabis, if it was legalised, would be more than $1 billion. The NZDF suggested that this money could be put into healthcare (including more addiction treatment facilities), schools, education programmes and other infrastructure that will benefit all New Zealanders. The cannabis industry could employ about 5000 people and allow the government to regulate and tax the sale and distribution.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments against reform, Use by children
Opponents of the bill suggested that despite an age limit on legal cannabis trade, children would be influenced by new legal and social norms, and, similar to alcohol and cigarettes, a greater prevalence of the drug would lead to cannabis use at younger ages than the legislation regulates for. In Oregon, where cannabis has been legalised, the number of children younger than six reported poisoned by cannabis rose by 271 per cent (from 14 cases to 52). Concerns were also expressed that government and authorities were not able to control underage access and use of alcohol and vaping products, so were unlikely to be able to control illegal cannabis use.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments against reform, Use by children
The age at which people start using cannabis is an important factor, and use of the drug can affect brain development in teenagers. A New Zealand study found that heavy use by teens led to an average loss of eight IQ points between ages 13 and 38. Even if these individuals quit as adults, lost mental abilities didn't fully return. Those who started smoking cannabis as adults didn't show notable IQ declines. Frequent use in early teens also doubles the risk of developing schizophrenia in the future.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments against reform, Increase in use
The Smart Approaches to Marijuana NZ Coalition, and the Say Nope to Dope campaign, suggest that the introduction of a legal market would lead to competition with the existing black market and drive cannabis prices down. The group suggested that this would lead to an increase in cannabis use overall, an outcome that is counter to the purpose of the bill: reducing harm.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments against reform, Road and workplace accidents
Concerns were also been raised that if more people start smoking it, this might lead to more road accidents and workplace injuries. Research in New Zealand showed that regular cannabis users have ten times the risk of car crash injuries or death compared to non-users, with another study showing that more than half of drivers causing a crash had drugs in their system.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Debate, Arguments against reform, Impact on health
Opponents to the bill emphasised that cannabis smoke irritates the lungs, and people who smoke it frequently can have the similar breathing problems to those who smoke tobacco. These problems include daily cough and phlegm, more frequent lung illness, and a higher risk of lung infections. A succession of clinical studies have found it increases the risk of chronic bronchitis, inflammation of the throat, and impaired immune function. However, it has not been shown to cause lung cancer. Cannabis may also precipitate schizophrenia in individuals who are vulnerable because of a personal or family history of schizophrenia.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
The rules regarding campaigning for the referendum were generally the same as for the general election. All advertisements had to carry a promoter statement, stating the name and physical address of the promoter. It was illegal to campaign on polling day, or within a 10-metre radius of an advance polling booth.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
During the regulated period, which ran from 18 August to 16 October 2020, promoters had to declare their campaign expenses and there were limits on how much they could spend on referendum campaigning. The maximum expense limit was $338,000 per referendum for those promoters registered with the Electoral Commission, and $13,600 per referendum for unregistered promoters.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
There were 15 registered promoters for the 2020 General Election and Referendums, two of which were against recreational cannabis: Family First New Zealand and SAM (Smart Approaches to Marijuana) NZ Coalition and 13 were in support. The Helen Clark Foundation was not registered, but was influential in the lead up to the election.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
On 30 June 2020, minister of justice Andrew Little claimed SAM NZ's campaign was funded by US political organisation Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM), via Family First, however SAM NZ state they are fully funded by concerned New Zealand families and did not receive any funding from the US organisation.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
The New Zealand Medical Association initially announced its opposition to the legislation, although controversy around a lack of membership consultation led the board to retract their public stance. The NZMA originally stated that "cannabis is a harmful drug that causes a range of health and social harms at the individual and community level", however it was subsequently revealed that the NZMA relied on outdated information and had not consulted any of its 5,000 doctors before making their statement public. Many GPs were upset by this and, subsequently, more than 100 doctors publicly supported cannabis legalisation.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
Dr Emma Clare said many doctors thought the referendum would pass, and so did not speak up about the NZMA's anti legislation stance. The NZMA was also criticised by former prime minister Helen Clark, who said it had given "a false impression to voters of what doctors think". Less than two weeks before election day, when early voting had been going on for over a week, the NZMA sent a letter of apology to its members which said: "The NZMA will have no position regarding the cannabis referendum."


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
While the government claimed to not have a position on the legalisation of cannabis, opponents of the proposed bill criticised government-published information for bias and lobbying for law change. The New Zealand Medical Journal was critical of the government naming and promoting the proposed bill as planning to "reduce harm", because evidence on outcomes were inconclusive, as legalisation was a still new model. The government was also criticised for not releasing an assessment report of the potential effects of legalisation, until after voting had begun.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
The government-funded NZ Drug Foundation claimed to be apolitical, but was accused of misleading advertising, saying the proposed bill would improve access to medicinal cannabis, when the proposed bill did not include medicinal cannabis.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
Close to the election, The Spinoff said Family First's "Say Nope To Dope" and SAM-NZ's "Vote Nope To Dope" campaigns had "out-worked and out-messaged pro-legalisation campaigners", observing "one team just wanting it more".


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
Much media attention was given to the fact that prime minister Jacinda Ardern would neither endorse, nor reveal her personal stance on the referendum. In May 2020 Jacinda Ardern polled as New Zealand's most popular prime minister in a century, thanks in part to her success in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic. Speculation prior to the election held that an endorsement from Ardern, would likely sway the outcome of the referendum, but despite publicly endorsing a Yes vote for the euthanasia referendum, she did not share her position on the cannabis referendum. Ardern stated that she wanted New Zealanders to form their own views on the matter, and that the Labour Party also held no official position.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Results
Official results for the general election and referendums were released on 6 November 2020. The number opposed to decriminalisation was 50.7% with 48.4% in favour. Preliminary results for the referendums were released by the Electoral Commission on 30 October 2020. Those results had 53.5% of people opposed to the legislation with 46.5% in support. Around 480,000 special votes were counted later reducing the percentage opposed to 50.7%.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Results
Unlike the general election, a preliminary count for the cannabis and euthanasia referendums was not completed on election night (17 October). All voting papers, counterfoils and electoral rolls were returned to the electorate's returning officer for counting. During the count, the returning officer approved and counted any special votes, and compiled a master electoral roll to ensure no-one voted more than once. Special votes include votes from those who enrolled after the deadline of 13 September, those who voted outside their electorate (including overseas votes), voters in hospital or prison, and those voters enrolled on the unpublished roll. To simplify processing and counting, overseas votes were sent to and counted at the Electoral Commission's central processing centre in Wellington.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Results, By polling place location
As each polling place had only one ballot box for ordinary referendum votes, ordinary votes were broken down by the general electorate where the polling place was located. Special votes were broken down by electorate. Both ordinary and special votes have been combined in the following table.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
Green Party MP Chlöe Swarbrick, a campaigner for drug reform, sarcastically told the winning No campaigners "Well done. It [cannabis] still exists" and said she would continue her fight for decriminalising cannabis. She labelled as hypocrites the majority of parliamentarians, who refused to publicly state they supported decriminalisation.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
After preliminary results for the referendum were released, prime minister Jacinda Ardern revealed that she had voted Yes in the referendum, and subsequently faced criticism, with Swarbrick suggesting that Ardern's refusal to offer public support showed she was not willing to stand up for her convictions. Aaron Ironside, spokesperson for SAM-NZ, agreed that Ardern's silence contributed to the result and said she had done the right thing letting voters decide, as that was the point of the referendum.


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
National MP Nick Smith described the preliminary result as a "victory for common sense" and that New Zealanders had "signalled opposition to the softening of drug crime". Family First director Bob McCoskrie of the "Say Nope to Dope" campaign said that he was "pretty stoked" with the preliminary referendum results and that  New Zealanders "understood the perceived benefits of legalisaiton were not greater than the harms that were going to come on society". Ironside said that he was happy that New Zealand younger people would not be enlisted in a "social experiment."


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
Writing on Stuff, columnist Damien Grant pointed out that previous governments had ignored referendum results and thought the new Labour government should do the same. He said: "Not only is the idea that the electorate should decide any particular issue impracticable, the closeness of the cannabis vote means that the prohibition of the drug is now unworkable" and argued that parliament should, "consider the ethical merits of subjecting the minority of otherwise law-abiding citizens to criminal sanctions for smoking dried leaves at the behest of a puritan majority".


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
Parmjit Randhawa, director of Christchurch-based medicinal cannabis company Greenlab was glad the referendum didn't pass as there wasn't enough clinical evidence supporting recreational cannabis. Speaking of research and development into medicinal cannabis he said "Before we start running, we should start walking."


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
Victoria University Associate Professor, Dr Fiona Hutton, said she thought the No campaign advertisements were "based on outdated moralised notions of those who use drugs, influenced by rightwing religious groups from the US". Hutton also thought "the playing field was never level, [and] that absolutely fantastic academics, community groups, organisations and campaigners [...] sought to educate, to inform, to circulate evidence, to give people clear and balanced information, fought to get their voices heard amongst swirling misinformation and misdirection".


2020 New Zealand cannabis referendum, Response
NewstalkZB radio broadcaster Mike Hosking spoke about research showing the media bias in favour of the Yes campaigners, saying "36 percent of all headlines promoted yes, 18 percent were for no. In other words, twice as much of what you saw was for one camp." Similarly figures on the number of reported quotes from advocates showed "the yes position was quoted twice as often as no". He said "worst offenders were The Spinoff, Stuff, Newshub, the Herald, TVNZ, and Radio New Zealand" and that he thought TVNZ & RNZ had "a statutory obligation to be fair and balanced".


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum
The New Zealand End of Life Choice referendum was a binding referendum  held on 17 October 2020, with early voting taking place from 3 October, in conjunction with the 2020 general election and cannabis referendum, on the question of whether the End of Life Choice Act 2019 should come into force. The Act would legalise voluntary euthanasia for those with a terminal illness and less than six months left to live, if confirmed to be eligible by two doctors. New Zealand is the first country to put euthanasia legalisation to a referendum.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum
As the majority of voters support the legislation, the bill will come into force on 7 November 2021, 12 months after the final vote count was announced. Preliminary results for the referendum were released by the Electoral Commission on 30 October 2020, and official results were released on 6 November 2020. In the final results, 65.1% of people supported the End of Life Choice Act while 33.7% were opposed.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Background
Euthanasia was illegal in New Zealand, with it being illegal to "aid and abet suicide" under Section 179 of the New Zealand Crimes Act 1961. Two earlier attempts to legalise euthanasia failed to get through the New Zealand Parliament. Hawkes Bay National MP Michael Laws' 1995 Death with Dignity Bill failed by 61 votes against and 29 supporting, and NZ First MP Peter Brown's 2003 Death with Dignity Bill failed in its first reading by 60 votes opposing to 58 supporting.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Background
ACT party MP David Seymour entered the End of Life Choice Bill to the private member's bill ballot in October 2015. The bill passed its first reading 76–44 in December 2017 and its second reading 70–50 in June 2019. In the Committee of the Whole House, support from the New Zealand First party became conditional on a referendum on whether the law should come into force. An amendment to require a referendum passed 69–51. The bill passed its third reading 69–51 on 13 November and it received royal assent on 16 November 2019, becoming the End of Life Choice Act 2019.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Referendum structure
Do you support the End of Life Choice Act 2019 coming into force?


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Referendum structure
If the majority of voters support the legislation, it will come into force 12 months after the final vote count is announced. If the majority oppose the legislation in the referendum (or any subsequent referendum, if the first is voided), it will not come into force and will be repealed by 16 November 2024, five years after it received the royal assent.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Public opinion
Support for assisted dying since 2000 has averaged at around 68%. During the 16-month-long select committee stage of the End of Life Choice Bill, 39,000 public submissions were made, with 90% of submitters opposed to it. Over one thousand doctors signed an open letter in mid-2019 saying that they "want no part in assisted suicide".


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
The rules regarding campaigning for the referendum are generally the same as for the general election. All advertisements must carry a promoter statement, stating the name and physical address of the promoter. It is illegal to campaign on polling day, or within a 10-metre (33 ft) radius of an advance polling booth.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Campaigning and endorsements
During the regulated period, which runs from 18 August to 16 October 2020, promoters have to declare their campaign expenses and there are limits on how much they may spend on referendum campaigning. The maximum expense limit is $338,000 per referendum for those promoters registered with the Electoral Commission, and $13,600 per referendum for unregistered promoters.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Results
Unlike the general election, a preliminary count for the cannabis and euthanasia referendums was not conducted on election night (17 October 2020). Instead, the referendum votes will be counted alongside the mandatory election recount.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Results
All voting papers, counterfoils and electoral rolls are returned to the electorate's returning officer for counting. During the count, the returning officer will approve and count any special votes, and compile a master electoral roll to ensure no-one has voted more than once. Special votes include votes from those who enrolled after the deadline of 13 September, those who voted outside their electorate (this includes all overseas votes), voters in hospital or prison, and those voters enrolled on the unpublished roll. To simplify processing and counting, overseas votes will be sent to and counted at the Electoral Commission's central processing centre in Wellington, rather than to electorate returning officers.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Results
Preliminary results for the referendums were released by the Electoral Commission on 30 October 2020. These results had 65.2% of people in support of the legislation with 33.8% opposed.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Results
Following the counting of the 480,000 special votes, official results for the general election and referendums were released on 6 November. Based on the final results, 65.1% of people supported the legislation while 33.7% opposed it.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Results
The new legislation will take effect on 5 November 2021.


2020 New Zealand euthanasia referendum, Results, By polling place location
As each polling place had only one ballot box for ordinary referendum votes, ordinary votes were broken down by the general electorate where the polling place was located. Special votes were broken down by electorate. Both ordinary and special votes have been combined in the following table.


2020 New Zealand general election
The 2020 New Zealand general election was held on Saturday 17 October 2020 to determine the composition of the 53rd parliament. Voters elected 120 members to the House of Representatives, 72 from single-member electorates and 48 from closed party lists. Two referendums, one on the personal use of cannabis and one on euthanasia, were also held on the same day. Official results of the election and referendums were released on 6 November.


2020 New Zealand general election
The governing Labour Party, led by incumbent Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, won the election in a landslide victory against the National Party, led by Judith Collins. Labour won 65 seats, enough for a majority government. It is the first time that a party has won enough seats to govern alone since the mixed-member proportional representation (MMP) system was introduced in 1996. Labour also achieved the highest percentage of the party vote (50.0%) since MMP was introduced, winning the plurality of party vote in 71 of the 72 electorates (Epsom being the sole exception).


2020 New Zealand general election
This is also the best nationwide result in the popular vote for a main party since 1951, the most seats any party has won since 1990 and the first time Labour has won an absolute majority of the vote since 1946. Conversely, this election was the second-worst result for the National Party, which performed poorer only in the 2002 general election.


2020 New Zealand general election
In a surprise victory, the left-wing environmentalist Greens' Chlöe Swarbrick won the Auckland Central seat vacated by National's retiring Nikki Kaye with a margin of 1,068 votes over Labour's Helen White. Economic and classical liberal party ACT and the Greens both increased their number of seats, while the minority Māori Party re-entered Parliament with two seats after Rawiri Waititi won the Waiariki electorate. Populist nationalist party New Zealand First, led by Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters in coalition with Labour, suffered its worst-ever result, losing all its seats.


2020 New Zealand general election
While results of opinion polls earlier in the year were not particularly strong for either major party, Ardern and the Labour Government were praised for their response to the COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand. Polls then suggested that Labour could either attain a majority government or could govern with confidence-and-supply from the Greens. In contrast, the leadership of the National Party changed twice in less than three months, unable to improve its poor polling results. Labour is believed to have gained support from centrist swing voters, many of whom had previously voted for National under John Key.


2020 New Zealand general election, Background
The final results of the 23 September 2017 election gave National 56 seats, while Labour and the Greens combined had 54 seats. New Zealand First won 9 seats and held the balance of power; it was in a position to give either National or Labour the 61 seats needed to form a government. On 19 October 2017, Winston Peters, leader of New Zealand First, announced that he would form a coalition government with Labour. On the same day, James Shaw, leader of the Green Party, announced that his party would give confidence and supply to a Labour–NZ First government. Thus, Labour regained power after nine years in opposition, ending the Fifth National Government which had been in power for three terms (2008–2017). The 2017 election also marked the first time under MMP in New Zealand that a party led a government without commanding the plurality of the party vote.


2020 New Zealand general election, Background
On 22 May 2020, a leadership election occurred following two low polls for the National Party, in which Todd Muller replaced Simon Bridges as leader and Leader of the Opposition, and Nikki Kaye replaced Paula Bennett as deputy leader of the party. Muller himself then resigned on 14 July 2020 citing health reasons, leading to another leadership election later that day, in which Collins was voted into the National leadership position.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system
New Zealand uses a mixed-member proportional (MMP) voting system to elect the House of Representatives. Each voter gets two votes, one for a political party (the party vote) and one for a local candidate (the electorate vote). Political parties that meet the threshold (5% of the party vote or one electorate seat) receive seats in the House in proportion to the percentage of the party vote they receive. 72 of the 120 seats are filled by the MPs elected from the electorates, with the winner in each electorate determined by the first-past-the-post method (i.e. most votes wins). The remaining 48 seats are filled by candidates from each party's closed party list. If a party wins more electorates than seats it is entitled to under the party vote, an overhang results; in this case, the House will add extra seats to cover the overhang.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system
A political party or parties with the support of the majority of members in the House form the Government. Prior to this election, from the introduction of MMP in 1996 no single party had won enough votes to win an outright majority of seats; when no party has commanded a majority, parties have had to negotiate with other parties to form a coalition government or a minority government.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
Electorate boundaries for the next election are required to be redrawn after each New Zealand census. The most recent census was held in 2018.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
By law, the number of South Island general electorates is fixed at 16, with the number of North Island general electorates and Māori electorates increasing or decreasing in proportion to the population. Each electorate must have the same population, with a tolerance of plus or minus five percent. For the 2014 and 2017 elections, there were 48 North Island general electorates and 7 Māori electorates, which, along with the 16 South Island electorates, gives a nationwide total of 71 electorates.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
On 23 September 2019, Statistics New Zealand announced that population growth necessitated one additional North Island general electorate, bringing the total number of North Island general electorates to 49 and the overall number of electorates to 72 (reducing the number of list seats available by one). Statistics New Zealand also announced that 11 North Island, three South Island, and two Māori electorates were above 5% tolerance, while five South Island electorates and one Māori electorate were below 5% tolerance.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
The Representation Commission undertook a review of electoral boundaries. This review was commenced in October 2019 and was completed in April 2020. The boundaries will apply in the 2020 general election, and the subsequent general election. In total, 36 electorates remained unchanged, 35 electorates were modified, and one new electorate created. The most significant boundary changes occurred in the Auckland, Waikato, central Canterbury, and Otago regions, with smaller changes in the Northland and Tasman regions.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
The new electorate was created in South Auckland and named Takanini. Taking area from the Hunua, Manurewa, and Papakura electorates, Takanini is predicted to be a National-tilting to marginal electorate. Takanini's creation cascaded existing electorates north through Auckland and south through Waikato. Significant changes to the north include Manukau East taking Sylvia Park and Panmure from Maungakiekie, with the electorate renamed Panmure-Ōtāhuhu; New Lynn taking the Waitakere Ranges from Helensville; Helensville taking Wellsford, Warkworth and the Kowhai Coast from Rodney and Northland, with the electorate renamed Kaipara ki Mahurangi; and Rodney taking Dairy Flat from Helensville and being renamed Whangaparāoa.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
To the south, Papakura took the entire Hunua electorate east of State Highway 1, in exchange for Hunua taking the northern part of the Waikato electorate as far south as, and including, Te Kauwhata. Hunua subsequently returned to its pre-2008 name, Port Waikato. Waikato took Te Aroha and the remainder of the Matamata-Piako District area from Coromandel, allowing Coromandel to take Omokoroa from Bay of Plenty.


2020 New Zealand general election, Electoral system, Electorate boundaries
In the South Island, Selwyn lost the Rakaia area to Rangitata, Mcleans Island and Christchurch Airport to Ilam, and Hornby South to Wigram. Ilam gained Avonhead from Wigram, allowing Wigram to take Aidanfield from Port Hills, which in turn allowed Port Hills to take the entire Banks Peninsula from Selwyn. Port Hills subsequently returned to its pre-2008 name of Banks Peninsula. Clutha-Southland lost the Tuatapere-Te Waewae area to Invercargill and Balclutha, Milton and the lower Clutha Valley to Dunedin South, while gaining Alexandra, Clyde and the Clutha Valley upstream of Beaumont from Waitaki.