September 29, 2017
Snail post slowing vote count
Labour MP Peeni Henare believes overseas special voting could be done online to speed up the counting process.
The Tamaki Makaurau MP doubled his majority at the weekend with a 3000-vote lead over the Maori Party’s Shane Taurima.
He says while people are grumbling about the time it is taking to find out who will form the next government, New Zealand First’s Winston Peters is right to hold back announcing who he might go with until after special voters are counted.
That’s not until October 7, as officials wait for overseas votes to arrive by mail.
"There's got to be a better way with technology that allows real time data so if you special vote offshore, surely there is a way to do it online where it is collected immediately and the data is available real time because this two week wait is just not good enough," Mr Henare says.
He is also concerned the electoral commission isn’t taking seriously complaints by Maori of the problems they encountered trying to vote in Maori electorates.
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