"My favourite was the voter who emphasised their tick for Carmel Sepuloni by drawing a little orange heart in the rectangle containing her name."

What a very human and readable judgement – they're not all like that, not by a wide margin.

Edit: Actually, that was fun to read?

One table is dealing with a very small polling place. Within the first half-hour I discover that seven votes had been miscounted in the official count as Sepuloni votes when there should have been three to Bennett, three to Tolleestrup (Green),?

There were no scrutineers present for the count at our quite-sizeable polling booth.

I didn't take that implication. Cock-up is a much easier explanation than conspiracy.

The latter, because they are volunteers after all and it?s simply fanciful to presume any party can supply scrutineers for every booth. I?d?

The vote-counting in the?

The thought of looking through the back of a voting paper with it held up to the light doesn't seem to you to be the New Zealand equivalent of the famous photo of the Florida election official holding up a ballot?

An advance vote was as of right in 2011.

Somewhat different from a special declaration vote.

Will be reading and inwardly digesting over the next day.

One was that it'll cost an estimated $100,000; Labour isn't cash-rich at present and if Bennett wins, it'll just be money down the drain.

The other was that?

Civics 101.

If Labour did decide to do an election petition I suspect the chances of Labour being successful is very very minimal.?

1. The bigger effect is not that Bennett is out of Parliament, but that the government's strength will drop?

It is illuminating to read a plain english law document. Judge got down to the nitty gritty and in the vernacular.

That unsung hero: "The reasonable man".

Whoever invented the special voting procedure that ensures anonymity?

I've never known of a recount judgment before. I kinda get the feeling that Judge Adams just really liked his involvement in the process and wanted to share it with the world. I love how you can?

If they weren't too apathetic to vote, then I suspect they were too disillusioned to vote.

How lovely to know we have people like Judge Adams overseeing stuff like this that really matters – cos you can tell they really do give a damn.

Surely we don?t need more evidence that electronic voting is a corporate profit making solution looking for a voting problem that doesn?t exist.

[49] was?

Well, yeah... which is why most close results (Tauranga in '99 comes to mind) don't escalate to electoral petitions.?

I'd agree with you there, on principle. At the same time, I'm sure we don't want to rest home residents and folks in hospital on?

Good point Islander – Graeme thanks for this its reassuring to read how carefully and considered the recount process was but taking Islander thought one step?

And the results, when closely examined, would appear to suggest that this is basically a valid assumption. You can quibble about the odd vote here and?

In theory perhaps, but in practice I believe the system is robust.

I picked up a takeaway vote on the day for my wife, who was unable to walk any distance. I had to?

And while it is great a?

[47]........My favourite was the voter who emphasised their tick for Carmel Sepuloni by drawing an orange heart in the rectangle containing her name."

They had ticked.

If you are suggesting any connection between these statements,
could you please make that connection explicit?
What, if?

Please be explicit about what you are suggesting.

I think you do not have a solid argument to suggest wrongdoing. As I noted above, any would-be fraudster is stymied by not knowing who has?

Last time the Ministers were sworn in on 19 November: this year it was 14 December.

I've?

An aside: there were polling places in most if not all hospitals on polling day.

Shame they didn't go for
In Coming Briefs for Ministers
ICBMs seem more in keeping
with the prevailing MAD* paradigm...

*Mutually Assured Destruction

I've spoken to a person in the PM's office. NZ can expect proactive release of the briefings in the New Year.

To my mind, they'd be mad to not take advantage of the slow news weeks mid-Jan to early-Februrary, but we'll see.

Surely you didn?t mean, Mutually Assured Demagoguery?

You could, if charitable, take the view that polling staff were tired and as Craig has noted, unfocussed, having?

Are you saying MADness, takes its toll?

Not for very much longer?

The very same Mark Brickell mentioned in the Red Alert post I linked to in my Paula Bennett post.

I agree – but perhaps replacing the word "aggressive" with "enthusiastic," as people tend to respond poorly to aggression – well intentioned or not, as?

Ah, I see. I do recall reading that Red Alert post at the time...

Maybe it's my happy-go-lucky, Gen X/Y upbringing, but I honestly cannot comprehend a mind that can approach a free and fair contest of ideas in a beautifully democratic country with a proud ideal of?

"Briefcase" – Judge Adams's first book of poetry:

After an argument with his wife, Verity, Jason Button threw a stapler which struck her on the face. Is he guilty of violent assault? Or was it just a matter of bad luck?

Briefcase, the first book of poetry by?

As regards the Judge?s written decision on the Waitakere judicial recount, It was the most?

I?m disappointed in the Herald?s angle, ?the Greens are to blame? for Waitakere. In fact, Bennett?s votes came from all over.?

The splits are given as percentages of the?

Trevett's claim about what the Greens were telling voters is also fanciful. As is her downplaying the more definite message in Epsom.

The Green Party candidates made it clear in marginal electorates that they were campaigning only?

At an Ohariu meet the candidates evening, Gareth Hughes explicitly asked for party votes for the Greens, and didn't mention candidate votes. The Libertarianz man was the only other one to do ask for party votes. Chauvel not surprisingly said it?

exactly

I resemble that remark!

Does anyone happen to know if the comparable figures for the previous election are easily accessible?

Yes.

2008
2005
2002

Hooray! Data for Christmas.

Merry Christmas!

Part one took a hard look at my suggestion for a estate tax funded sovereign wealth fund and concluded it was a brilliant idea?

excellent

I distinctly heard Obama say "Yeah, we gotta do something about that" in his victory speech.

Not sure what he can do – it's not really something in?