Mistakes in vote count occur but impact minimal
Changes to election results due to vote counting errors are negligible, but mistakes do happen.
The preliminary results for the small rural Marlborough township of Linkwater showed a whopping 123 party votes, of a total of 215 votes, were for the Ma¯ ori Party, compared with 32 for National and 30 for Labour.
This had Linkwater residents gobsmacked – it was common knowledge the township was full of National supporters, they said.
Then the Electoral Commission confirmed there had been a ‘‘data entry error’’ and those 123 votes actually belonged to National.
So how often are these mistakes made? And how much of a difference do they actually make to the outcome of the election?
Preliminary results v final results:
An Electoral Commission spokeswoman said errors were sometimes made during the counting process.
Data entry and counting errors are usually small and don’t make a difference to the make-up of Parliament, or change who wins an electorate.
Noticeable changes between the preliminary election results – delivered on the night – and the final results, which are delivered two weeks later, were usually due to the special votes, the spokesperson said.
This time around, 384,072 Kiwis cast special votes, which accounts for about 15 per cent of the vote.
Once counted, those votes are likely to slightly change the share of the vote and how many seats each party gets.
A fair number of votes are needed to change the actual mix of seats and vote share.
That is why more than 300,000 special votes are likely to slightly change the current arrangements but a minor error in vote counting is not.
How do these errors occur in the first place?:
‘‘It’s important to remember that the preliminary count is intended to provide indicative results only on election night,’’ the spokesperson said.
To put things into perspective: 7839 separate sets of results are produced and entered into the system – that’s about 180,000 different numbers that are entered.
Given the volume involved and the time pressure on election night, mistakes sometimes happen.
About 12,000 people work on election day at voting places and are involved in the election night count, and a further 2000 people work on the count of advance votes on election day at electorate headquarters.
The number of people at each voting place will vary depending on the size. About 2000 people are involved in the two-week official count.
The counting process is largely a manual process, delivered according to specific rules within the Electoral Act.
How can we be sure any errors are spotted?:
The idea that votes in the country’s most important ballot could be incorrectly counted may be unnerving.
However, there is no need to be alarmed.
There are strict processes in place to make sure all normal votes are re-checked, and recounted between election night and the final results delivered two weeks later.
And all special votes, including those from 80 overseas posts, go through a stringent checking and counting process within their electorate.
Irregularities or errors are brought to the attention of the registrar of electors, who checks things like whether the person is included in the roll and eligible to vote, and if they aren’t included in the roll, whether they are eligible to cast a special vote.
‘‘The commission takes the official count very seriously and processes are in place to pick up and resolve any data entry or counting errors from election night,’’ the spokesperson said.