Poll improvements ‘effective’

Press, 6 February 1982, Page 6

Poll improvements ‘effective’

Parliamentary reporter

Improvements made to enrolment and voting procedures for the 1981 General Election were effective, the Minister of Justice (Mr McLay) said yesterday. He released an inter-de-partmental review of the administration of the election which, he said, showed that there were “virtually no problems” with new procedures for roll revision and compilation. Mr McLay said that he had set out to deal with the problems of compiling rolls and running an election and “had done just that, and eliminated a large number of difficulties in the conduct of elections.” “The review shows how effective we were,” he said. “Nonetheless, the committee of officials who conducted the review will continue its work and will particularly seek to introduce improvements to the system of election-night vote counts in an attempt to eliminate errors in the provisional results.”

Mr McLay noted, also that the report outlined suggestions for further study : on special voting procedures.

These would include improved selection and training of returning officers, better instruction materials, and the introduction of procedures to check declarations before the issue of ballot papers. “The report makes it clear that virtually no problems were encountered with the new procedures for roll revision and compilation, and that alone justifies the changes that were made after the 1978 election,” he said. “The conduct of the election and compilation of the rolls is a tribute to the Justice Department, the Post Office, and the other departments which were involved.” The main thrust of the interdepartmental review is contained in one paragraph: “The results achieved in this, the first General Election held since the establishment. of the Select- Committee and implementation of the revised procedures affecting both enrolment and voting arrangements, have . fully demonstrated the effectiveness of these improvements.” . . . _ The report also says that., there has been little critic- 7 -

ism of any facet of the process and that both the public and the electoral staff had been generally appreciative of the improved procedures. No difficulties were met in the compilation of rolls, but the review suggests that some adjustment in the timetable which governs the? stages in compilation would be desirable. Minor problems arose in the printing and distribution of voting forms and some modifications will be required to the lay-out of the forms and printing specifications. This will include a reevaluation of the use of marker pens — used last year for the first time — particularly in conjunction with light-weight ballot papers. The voter information service, which offered telephone advice toll-free if necessary, had 4362 inquiries. Of these, the Auckland office had 2407, Christchurch 1015, and Wellington 940. Most of the inquiries (2890) were about special voting in New Zealand. Overseas voting was raised in 572 inquiries, enrol,ment in 525 inquiries, and the -•5',... .

remaining 375 covered d range of other matters. Early voting, particularly from hospitals and homes for the elderly, brought about some overlap of voting through the involvement of both relatives and political party organisations. This led to dual voting in most elec- ? torates, but such instances were found and rectified ” without difficulty, the report says. “ • ’ ' • * Enrolment problems with aged residents in care homes has been referred to the Post Office (responsible for roll compilation) for future action. The review notes that .the success of- the election night count — “which is entirely a public information exercise” — was marred by subsequent advice of collation and transcription errors. These occurred both in polling places and at returning officers’ headquarters. Several initial suggestions are under study to at least reduce, if not eliminate, these errors. Among the suggestions are the redesign of the polling booth accounting form, to incorporate a self-balance,

the introduction of a. new form for the collation of individual booth results, to provide a polling place total, the balancing of candidate counts and unused papers against ballot paper issues, the balancing of Parliamentary with licensing results, and insistence on detailed checking procedures for telephoned results. Although no problems were encountered in providing final counts and declaring the results, returning officers were concerned by the administrative pressures for early declaration of results, as these reduced time available for careful and detailed counts and checking procedures. The review said that the pressures arose in the main from the “need to facilitate machinery-of-Government arrangements." Returning officers were also concerned over the release of inferim counts from candidates or scrutineers and considered that such activities should be restrained. The committee will continue its review and put detailed proposals for further improvements to the Cabinet ; later. " ■ . ■ -