[Sosfbay-discuss] Answers to questions on the NZ ballot I had at the meeting...

[Tian Harter]

Hi Tian,

I can answer most of your questions, and a couple I'll have to make a 
phone call over because I think the system has changed a little.

 > a) how long does it take to vote?
it took me ten minutes, a 5 minute queue, a couple of minutes to track 
my name, cross it off and hand me a voting form, a couple of minutes to 
fill it in (no hard decisions here) and a minute to post it and leave
 >
 > b) Is cheating by big parties a problem?
There's no news that any of the parties cheat.  The most that happens is 
that there's a handful of people who vote twice, mostly people who don't 
know what they're doing, i.e. elders with memory problems.  Anyone who's 
thought to vote twice maliciously gets tracked and prosecuted, otherwise 
the votes are simply discounted.

 > c) How long does it take to count votes, and how do they do it?
The polling places close at 7pm and a whole bunch of people at 
electorate headquarters count the ballots by hand.  The tv reports all 
the results coming in from every electorate around the country.  The 
smaller booths return their results first.  This election cycle the 
result of the election was known by about 9.30pm, only 2 1/2 hours.
The checking for double votes happens afterwards.  We don't get a final 
result for three weeks because that's how long it takes for special 
votes and overseas votes to be counted.  special votes are those that 
are cast outside of the area where the person is registered as a voter.
This is the piece of info I will check and confirm back to you.  i spoke 
with a Returning Officer a month ago and she told me that had new 
systems, but I didn't hear what they were.

bye for now
Rosalie
-- 
Tian
http://tian.greens.org
Last year in five State Assembly races the Green candidate got more
votes than the Republican candidate. Four of them were in Maine.
The other one was in Minnesota.