David Farrar: A systemic failure in vote counting

The Auditor-General’s report into the incorrect vote count for the general election is polite but damning. They found:

* There were 25 incorrect vote totals at polling places

* One ballot box went missing and wasn’t counted

* Some electorate managers didn’t check the data from their electorate

* National Office also failed to check data submitted

* There is no verification of data against source material

* There was no system for documenting and verifying that data entry checks or reasonableness checks had been carried out.

 

* The Electoral Commission had not fully documented the quality assurance data checks that National  Office staff were expected to perform

* Some electorate managers told us that they signed off final result certificates for their electorates, indicating that reasonableness checks had been completed, without doing the checks or verifying that they had been done.

 

* Not all dual votes were removed from the count

These are not minor issues. This is a systematic fail. It is luck, not good management, that the errors didn’t cumulatively impact the allocation of seats.

I’d say we need some new appointments to the Electoral Commission Board – at least one should be an audit or process expert.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.