Election: Why do we have to wait so long for the special votes?
Election: Why do we have to wait so long for the special votes? . These dogs probably arent too worried about waiting two weeks to find out who will be NZs next Prime Minister.
Special votes shouldnt take two weeks to be counted, former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer says. New Zealand is in a state of limbo until October 7, when the results of the 384,072 special votes are returned.
These special votes account for about 15 per cent of the total vote, and could move the mix of seats around. Historically, special votes have favoured the left, and Labour and the Greens are hoping this will again be the case.
In 2014, when they made up about 12 per cent of the vote, they resulted in National losing a seat and the Greens gaining one.
Former prime minister and QC Sir Geoffrey Palmer says he believes processes should be changed to make the return of the final results more efficient.
The man currently holding the balance of power - NZ Firsts Winston Peters - has made it abundantly clear he wont make any decision on which party he will align with until after these results come in.
During a bizarre press conference on Wednesday, where he berated the media, Peters said he wanted to wait to hear the precise voice of New Zealand, before making a choice.
The question is, why does it take two weeks for 15 per cent of the votes to be counted, when the rest were counted on the day?.
PM Bill English broke with tradition to cast an early vote in Wellington this election. However, he would have undoubtedly been enrolled already, meaning his vote would have been counted on September 23. WHAT ARE SPECIAL VOTES?.
Firstly, lets take a look at what types of votes are considered special votes. On election night we were given the preliminary results, which didnt include special votes.
Jacinda Ardern also cast an early vote this year. Special votes are any vote cast outside of your home electorate, any vote cast from overseas, or crucially - any vote cast by someone who enrolled after August 23.
Everyone who enrolled to vote at the early voting booth, as tens of thousands of young people did, cast special votes. Also, dictation votes, where someone needed special assistance, or votes where someone voted in the wrong electorate, are classed as specials.
WHY DOES IT TAKE TWO WEEKS?. The process of counting votes is complicated and rigorous, and laid out in the Electoral Act.
The official results process starts on the Sunday after polling day but cannot be completed until after the last legal day for receiving special votes from other electorates and returning officers overseas, which is 10 days after polling day.
Any special votes not returned by October 3 are disallowed. The special votes also have to be returned to their electorate to be counted.
This obviously takes a lot longer when votes have been cast at overseas polling booths. They firstly have to be returned to New Zealand, then to their electorate within New Zealand, then they can be counted.
Of the 384,072 special votes, there are an estimated 61,375 overseas and dictation votes. The exact number of overseas votes wont be known until after they are returned and counted, an Electoral Commission spokesperson said.
The declarations of all special voters must be checked to ensure they are eligible to make a special vote. This includes checking if the person was enrolled.
Where a voters name cannot be found on the electoral roll, their declaration is forwarded to the Registrar of Electors who carries out more extensive checks. The Registrar then advises whether the voter was enrolled.
All special voters are marked off the master roll or added to a list of voters not on the roll. Those who enrolled after August 23 will not be on the roll and have to be checked separately.
In some cases, votes are counted as party vote only. This is when a special voter votes in the wrong electorate and their electorate vote is disallowed but their party vote still counts.
After all these checks, valid special votes are admitted to the count.
As well as counting the special votes, the ballots counted on election night are re-checked, to make sure the voters intentions are clear, then recounted. This gives us the final, official, election results. COULD IT BE QUICKER?.
Because of the 10 day return rule, and the need to check and count special votes, as well as check and recount all other votes, the process will take the full 14 days.
The commission spokesperson said the final results would not be returned before October 7, and not before. The overseas votes take the longest to process because of the travel time.
But Palmer said more could be done to change the way overseas votes were collected to make the process more efficient.
Things like more online voting, or using electoral officers to count votes overseas, could speed up the process, especially in case of a crisis that required a new government to move on important decisions.
It was unnecessary to keep the country waiting for a full two weeks, he said. Lets just be thankful the process isnt going to take nine weeks like it did following the countrys fist MMP election and coalition negotiations back in 1996.
The commission spokesperson said she was not aware of any plans to change the way overseas votes were collected or counted. At the moment, everyone was too busy with the process of returning the final results, she said.
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