Handful of voters in Whangarei byelection try to make most of duplicate voting papers

Some Denby byelection voters tried to vote twice. Photo / File

Some voters issued with two sets of voting papers in the Denby byelection tried to vote twice, it has been revealed.

Up to 500 voters were posted duplicate packs with 25 of them trying to vote twice. The majority tried to vote for the same candidate twice, while two people tried to vote for two different candidates.

In the case of replicated votes, only one vote was counted, and in the other two cases neither vote was counted.

The Denby byelection was held on December 7 after Jayne Golightly resigned in September after learning she was not a New Zealand citizen.

Early in the voting period, it was revealed some voters had received duplicate voting packs. An investigation found a file containing up to 500 elector records was printed twice.

Shortly after, it was also revealed two people had received 39 voting packs.

The electoral office's software does not allow more than one vote per person.

The information was contained in a report by Election Services which is being presented to the Whangarei District Council meeting tomorrow.

The printing company took full responsibility for the error, and has paid $5000 plus GST to the council as compensation.

That payment was deducted from the cost of the by-election, which reduces it from $31,127.51 plus GST to $26,127.51 plus GST.

The report states Election Services "no longer have arrangements with this printer".

Gavin Benney won the by-election with 841 votes, ahead of Matt Keene with 635 votes.

There were 14,135 eligible voters and 32.04 per cent, or 4529 people, returned their vote.