Vote counting blunder not nefarious

It is also the focus of the first reported voting system irregularity of the 2017 general election – the place where the historically National-supporting community apparently transferred its allegiance wholesale to the Ma¯ ori Party.

It was a mistake, of course. It was a mix-up so blindingly obvious that it was soon spotted. The Electoral Commission confirmed that a ‘‘data entry’’ error had transferred 123 votes from National to Ma¯ ori.

In fact, there seems to have been at least a three-way mix-up. It is unlikely that NZ First, which garnered 25 votes at Linkwater School last election, suddenly slumped to one.

Inevitably, the mistake has some social media warriors questioning the integrity of the entire electoral machinery, but no human process is error-free and – unless more reports start coming in – this appears to have been an isolated mistake.

It probably will not have been made at the school, where the electoral staff will have counted and checked the 221 ballot papers using the old-fashioned pen-andpaper method.

It is more likely to have happened at the Kaiko¯ ura electorate office, where a worker will have entered numbers into a computer at the end of a long working day. Anyone who has worked in a data entry job will understand how easily such mistakes are made.

That is why we have a system with not just an election-night count, but a two-week official count, in which such errors can be picked up and corrected.

People frustrated at the length of time it takes to release the final result, holding up coalition negotiations, should at least take comfort that the process is robust and transparent.

The sense of closeness and familiarity that New Zealanders have with their electoral process, and the peaceful and dignified way that we go about elections, is one of the strengths of our democracy, repeatedly judged to be among the least corrupt in the world.

When the final count is completed, 2.5 million ballot papers will have been counted and recounted, and each time they are counted it is done twice – once for the party vote and once for the candidate. Checks and balances apply at each stage.

The people doing the counting are mainly not nameless, faceless officials. They are ordinary New Zealanders who sign up for the event. They don’t get paid much, and very occasionally they make mistakes.