After the official results of the 2023 New Zealand General Election were released, a journalist queried the Electoral Commission about an apparently anomalous result in one electorate. The Electoral Commission investigated and confirmed that there were errors in the official results. The Electoral Commission amended and reissued the official results. Although this did not change the candidate or party vote outcomes, it did raise questions about how errors could have occurred in the counting and reporting of results.

After discussion with the Electoral Commission, the Office of the Auditor-General decided to review the Electoral Commission’s quality assurance processes for counting votes.

The Electoral Commission has limited flexibility with many aspects of the election because they are set by legislation. There are electronic processes for verifying voter information and collating information about votes, but the rest of the process is manual. These manual processes are vulnerable to mistakes when they, and the people doing them, are put under pressure.

This is what happened in the 2023 General Election. Mistakes happened because some ballots were misplaced, which led to incorrect counting, and because some people made data entry errors or did not do the checks that were required. Although there was a relatively small number of errors, which did not affect the overall outcome, small errors can make a difference.

Key recommendations:

• Review and update standard operations manuals and instructions, to improve the clarity of information about quality control activities and why they are important and to clarify accountability and responsibility for carrying them out.
• Complete the end-to-end description of the election process and interdependencies of activities, and identify controls that support the election process.
• Review hardware requirements, to ensure that electorates have sufficient technology to complete tasks required of them.
• Enhance risk identification processes and continue to apply programme and project management disciplines (including managing risks) throughout the election period.