The review will look into why the errors occurred, what the Electoral Commission did once it learned of them and what improvements could be made. (file image) Photo: RNZ / Nate McKinnon
The auditor-general has launched an investigation after more than two dozen voting places made errors when confirming the final election result.
John Ryan's inquiry will examine what quality assurance procedures the Electoral Commission has in place for the vote count in the general election.
The Electoral Commission discovered errors with the counting of votes after the official result had been confirmed, Ryan said.
Auditor-General John Ryan. Photo: Controller and Auditor General
"Subsequent investigation found that three voting places had misallocated party votes to the wrong parties during data entry, another 15 voting places had similar errors for candidate votes, one electorate had special votes entered incorrectly, five voting places had correctly entered voting data, but for the wrong days, and one electorate had missed counting the votes in a ballot box during the official count.
"Although these errors had no effect on the outcome of the results of the election or the result in any individual electorate, the Commission had expected its quality assurance processes to have identified and corrected those errors before the official count was completed."
Ryan's review will look into why the errors occurred, what the commission did once it learned of them and what improvements could be made.
The investigation is due to be completed by April next year.
