It is doing its complete vetting of all the votes cast, checking the copies of the electoral rolls to ensure nobody has voted in more than one place and checking the qualifications of all newly enrolled voters.
Then it does a complete recount of all the votes before finally declaring the official election result nearly three weeks after polling day.
The time it takes, Edgeler explained, is the price we pay for an extremely simple voting procedure. People enrolling to vote in New Zealand elections are not asked for identity documents, they can vote anywhere in the country or overseas, they don’t even need to be enrolled on Election Day to cast a special vote.
“We have the same levels of voter integrity as other countries,” he said, “but the difference is, we make the Electoral Commission do this work instead of you when you enrol.”
Meanwhile the country effectively has no government for three weeks. The defeated government is continuing in a “caretaker” capacity and the precise shape of the next government depends on those remaining half million votes.
It is not clear what would happen if an unforeseen event requires an urgent decision with far-reaching implications.
Convention says what should happen — the outgoing Cabinet should act on the instructions of incoming leadership — but that convention has not always worked as it should.
Sir Robert Muldoon’s attempt to resist a post-election devaluation of the dollar in 1984 showed what can happen if a defeated leader finds a successor’s instructions unpalatable.
Muldoon’s own ministers quickly forced him to do the right thing and happily no such constitutional hiccup has occurred in New Zealand since. But a three-week interval in which something similar could arise is less than ideal.
How hard would it be for the commission to publish a provisional tally of the special votes?
It could probably have done it this week by putting all the specials into the right electorates and totalling their party votes.
Like the election night results, they would be subject to the commission’s checks but at least we would have figures that would enable the political parties to begin coalition negotiations somewhat sooner than three weeks after the poll.
In the past we have waited much longer than three weeks for a government to be formed, of course, but this time Winston Peters is not playing his usual game.
He will only deal with National and Act and they look likely to need him. They are just waiting for the special votes.
Christopher Luxon appears in no hurry, he is approaching coalition formation like corporate mergers he says he has done, seeking to establish a rapport with other parties first.
The three-week hiatus might suit that purpose, enabling the parties to talk under less pressure before they get down to business.
But it is leaving the government of the country in limbo too long.
