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Speaker 1: Proposed changes won't make vote counting happen any faster. This

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Speaker 1: is according to the Electoral Commission, which says they'll still

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Speaker 1: need twenty days to count Luxon, though he still reckons

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Speaker 1: the process needs to be sped up.

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Speaker 2: Oh well, we expect them to speed up the voting

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Speaker 2: pretty simple. You don't just move it back two weeks

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Speaker 2: and then say we're going to stick with the same deadline.

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Speaker 2: We're living in twenty twenty five. And I just suggested

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Speaker 2: that vote can be counted a hell of a lot

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Speaker 2: faster than what we've experienced in New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Constitutional lawyer Graham edeler with me. Now, hey Graham, hello,

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Speaker 1: it can it be made faster? Is he right?

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Speaker 2: No? Like maybe a day or two, but not really.

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Speaker 2: I mean it's not that vote counting takes long time

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Speaker 2: in New Zealand. It takes about this long everywhere. Australia

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Speaker 2: had an election a few months back, sort of from

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Speaker 2: where to go the election and then the official result

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Speaker 2: took them thirty four days. Finally our last election was

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Speaker 2: thirty three. You know, it's the difficulty is and the problem,

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Speaker 2: or in part the solution in New Zealand is we

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Speaker 2: let people cast a special vote on election day. Anywhere

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Speaker 2: in the country you can vote on election day. A

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Speaker 2: lot of other countries don't do that. If you're in

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Speaker 2: the United Kingdom, you cast a vote the parliamentary election

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Speaker 2: there you're told your voting booth is the school hall

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Speaker 2: at this street. You can only vote there and you

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Speaker 2: have to vote there on election day. And if you

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Speaker 2: want a special vote, you're going to have to cast

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Speaker 2: it a couple of weeks in advance if you're going

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Speaker 2: to be away. And they do then the same sorts

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Speaker 2: of checks on specialist, was this person eligible, were they

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Speaker 2: really enrolled, and all those sorts of things that we

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Speaker 2: do here, but they get to do them a couple

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Speaker 2: of weeks earlier. The reason that votes take this long,

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Speaker 2: it's not the counting of them, it's the checking of

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Speaker 2: the special votes. It's this person really entitled to vote.

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Speaker 2: And it's not just people enrolling late. It's people are

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Speaker 2: on the unpublished role or people who are in Auckland's

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Speaker 2: per work, but they're normally live in Wellington. And so

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Speaker 2: because we say you can vote anywhere in the country,

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Speaker 2: that's when we have to start doing a lot of

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Speaker 2: those checks. So why does the people haven't cast them

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Speaker 2: that day.

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Speaker 1: Graham, Why then is the guvern proposing these changes and

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Speaker 1: the hope of speeding things up when they could have

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Speaker 1: just done what you said, I.

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Speaker 2: Don't know, you know, it's I really don't like. I mean,

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Speaker 2: there's there's a formal deadline of how long they can

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Speaker 2: take to count these and we changed it a couple

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Speaker 2: of elections ago. We didn't notice the dissinder's last victory

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Speaker 2: because it was so far ahead it didn't matter how

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Speaker 2: long it took the count we knew who had already won.

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Speaker 2: They're not proposing to change the deadline. They extended it

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Speaker 2: by I think it was five or ten days or

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Speaker 2: something like that back six eight years ago. Whenever it was.

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Speaker 2: It's something deadline law.

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Speaker 1: Is there something that's wrong with letting people vote? Well,

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Speaker 1: we let people vote early, but allowing the votes to

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Speaker 1: be counted early.

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Speaker 2: Again, it's ordinary votes. You know, people who go in

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Speaker 2: and you know, vote where they're supposed to. If you

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Speaker 2: vote in your local place, you know, I live in

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Speaker 2: Auckland Central or you live in Wellington Central or wherever

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Speaker 2: you go on vote there on the day, that vote

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Speaker 2: can be counted really quickly because all the checks have

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Speaker 2: already been done. That person was enrolled to vote, and

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Speaker 2: they voted in their electorate and we crossed them off.

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Speaker 2: And as long as you didn't cross their name off

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Speaker 2: twice and have to check did that person vote twice?

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Speaker 2: That's a few days, you know, And the vote counting

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Speaker 2: only takes a few days. It's the other checks that

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Speaker 2: we have to do, and other countries do as well,

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Speaker 2: which is why you know it takes you know, a

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Speaker 2: month to get the official result. The difference with New

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Speaker 2: Zealand compared to Australia is you know, they knew what

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Speaker 2: the result was because it was you know, the Australian

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Speaker 2: Labor Party was fair enough ahead that the results in

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Speaker 2: the final few electorates which were close didn't matter themselves.

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Speaker 1: And then we then have to go through the arduous

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Speaker 1: coalition negotiation posts, don't we in New Zealand. So basically

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Speaker 1: I think the moral of the story here is we

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Speaker 1: just make it like the census, Like if you're not home,

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Speaker 1: you know you've got to vote. If you're not home

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Speaker 1: where the census comes, you don't get to fill it in.

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Speaker 1: So you either vote in your area in your local

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Speaker 1: town hall, or you might have to do it way earlier,

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Speaker 1: and if you're somewhere else you can't.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive.

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Speaker 1: Listen live to news talks it'd be from four pm weekdays,

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