Computer glitches corrupt some ballots

Computer glitches have corrupted an unknown number of special voting papers.

More than 200,000 special votes are to be counted before the final result is declared next Saturday.

Of these, 13,000 ballot papers were downloaded from the Chief Electoral Office's website by overseas voters who faxed in their votes.

It has emerged that some of these papers may have been corrupted by people's individual computer set-ups, according to a report in the Dominion Post newspaper today.

The report said some parties' names were blacked out when overseas ballot papers were printed from voters' computers, raising fears the problem could influence the outcome of the tight election race.

The extent of the problem was unknown. About 10 instances of incorrect ballot forms being printed had emerged. These were corrected before the vote was cast.

The office was playing down the problem yesterday, but Greens co-leader Rod Donald said it might cast doubt on the validity of some special votes. These could yet decide the shape of the next government.

The issue came to light after a voter in Banks Peninsula sent Mr Donald a copy of a ballot paper printed from a laptop computer, which showed the Green Party's name blacked out.

Assistant chief electoral officer Robert Peden said the problem appeared to be with some voters' laptop software or printer set-ups.

"There have been some voters, when they have printed the paper, all the parties have been blanked out. In that case they have contacted the help desk. The help desk has assisted them to get an updated version of Acrobat (software) on their system and they have been able to print the paper out properly," he said.

Fewer than 10 people had sought help for such a problem.

If voters had printed off a faulty ballot paper, they could check it against the version on their computer screens, Mr Peden said.

But Mr Donald said some voters might not have noticed that a single party was blanked out. If the Greens found it was a big enough issue to have affected the election result, he would take legal advice on the next step.

- nzpa