Vote counting system will deliver results earlier

By REBECCA WALSH

A new system for counting the votes from today's election aims to get preliminary results out before midnight.

The system was developed by a senior business analyst at the Chief Electoral Office after lengthy delays at the last election.

In 1999, only 39 per cent of the 67 electorates completed their preliminary counting on election night, prompting Ministry of Justice and parliamentary select committee inquiries.

In 1996, full results were not known until 2am.

Under the new system, there will be one ballot box for each polling place and counters will work as a team to sort and count the votes.

The electorate vote will be counted first.

The votes will be divided up and handed out to the counters sitting around a table.

Each counter will be assigned a particular candidate or candidates, whose votes he or she will keep, while passing on votes for other candidates, until all the votes are accounted for.

The same will then be done with the party vote.

Previously, pairs of issuing officers counted all candidate votes and all the party votes from their ballot box.

An extra 1500 people will help with the count from 7pm.

When the counting is finished, each of the polling place managers will phone the results through to their returning officers, who will then enter the figures into the central election result computer system.

The Electoral Office aims to publicise advance votes - those made up to yesterday - by 8.30pm.

The results for half the polling places should be known by 10pm, with the remainder out by 11.30pm.

By 2005 we could be voting electronically over the internet, but issues such as the risk of hackers intercepting, altering or deleting votes would have to be worked through first.

Results coverage begins 7pm Saturday on nzherald.co.nz