Three election candidates officially apply for a judicial recount but what would a recount mean?
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The hundreds of Tāmaki Makaurau voters who voted Labour but didn’t tick Peeni Henare cost him the electorate and paved the way for first-time Te Pāti Māori candidate Takutai Kemp to win the seat and confirm a record six Te Pāti MāoriMPs.
Following a recount of the Tāmaki Makaurau electorate following the election night result - Kemp held a four-vote majority over Henare - the recount has increased Kemp’s lead to 42.
Meanwhile, Labour’s Helen White has clung on to Mt Albert, her initial 20-vote majority over National’s Melissa Lee only dropping to 18 after the recount.
Kemp’s result means the Māori Party’s MMP - “More Māori in Parliament” - two-tick strategy worked.
But the Labour’s voting strategy failed because while they won the majority in every one of the 7 Māori electorate, its supporters forgot to vote for their own candidates.
Kemp told the Herald it had been a stressful fortnight waiting for the recount.
Gang of Six: Mariameno Kapa-Kingi, Takutai Ferris, Debbie Ngarewa-Packer, Hana-Rawhiti Maipi-Clarke, Rawiri Waititi and Takutai Natasha Kemp - Te Pāti Māori MPs.
“I am feeling relieved and it is good to finally get the full and final result,” Kemp said.
“We always said that every vote was going to count and I have to applaud our people for making every one of their votes count.
“This has been an extremely hard going, but I’m happy to be the MP for Tāmaki Makaurau.
“I am feeling very emotional and pay tribute to our grass roots approach, which worked.”
Had Tāmaki gone to Henare, the number of MPs would have decreased to 122 - not the 123 they have now, as Henare is a Labour list placing.
The Herald understands more than 100 Tāmaki Makaurau voters ticked Labour for their party vote but left the candidate vote blank. Their votes counted for the Labour party but not for a candidate.
There were also a number of voters who double-dipped, ticking Labour’s Henare and Te Pāti Māori’s Kemp - believing their two ticks could go to both candidates yet making their votes void. There were also whānau who ticked Henare and Kemp as well as Labour and Te Pāti Māori, ticking their ballot paper eight times - more void votes.
Labour's Helen White has held Mt Albert after a recount. Photo / George Heard
The Herald understands at least one polling booth had to be counted four times and still had four different outcomes, while at least one booth had on election night a small number of votes for one candidate, only for those votes to be reversed in the recount.
Kemp, after the recount, received 10,068 (an increase of 18 on election night) and Henare 10,026 (a decrease of 22 from election night).
“I am satisfied that the difference in total votes have been checked and are due to counting errors plus a slight increase in the number of disallowed votes following the recount,” Auckland District Court judge Kevin Kelly wrote in his judgement.
“I am satisfied that all votes have been accounted for when processing the results.”
Kelly noted some booths were attributed to the wrong candidate.
“In the case of some polling stations, the votes in the official count were found to have been attributed to the wrong candidate. The reasons for this are unclear. In three polling stations this happened to groups of five, six and 12 votes, respectively. These votes were counted against the correct candidate in the recount.”
But Kelly was confident the recount had identified those mistakes and they had been corrected.
Henare said in a live social media post that he was “at peace” with the result. He said he had requested a recount given there was only a four-vote difference in the result.
He said representing Tāmaki Makaurau since 2014 was the “greatest honour and privilege” and confirmed he would stay on for the next term as a Labour MP, coming in on the party list.
“The mahi still continues… I will still be a strong voice for the whānau here in Tāmaki Makaurau and Māori across the country.”
Meanwhile, White has not responded to requests for an interview.
The typically impenetrable red fortress of Mt Albert was one of the more shocking results of the election, with White winning by just 20 votes.
The past three MPs for Mt Albert were Labour leaders Helen Clark, David Shearer and Dame Jacinda Ardern, who held a 21,000-vote majority in 2020. It has never been held by National.
The recount saw White slip another two votes to hold an 18-vote majority over National’s Melissa Lee.
In a statement, White said she looked forward to representing Mt Albert and working to rebuild support for Labour.
Lee, who has been a National list MP since 2008, will again enter Parliament off the party list.
Another recount in a close seat delivered on Friday found Labour’s Rachel Boyack holding the seat of Nelson, beating National’s Blair Cameron by just 26 votes.
Joseph Los’e joined NZME in 2022 as Kaupapa Māori Editor. Los’e was a chief reporter, news director at the Sunday News newspaper covering crime, justice and sport. He was also editor of the NZ Truth and prior to joining NZME worked for 12 years for Te Whānau o Waipareira.
