Fathers miss out on vote

About 1000 fathers of pupils at one of Auckland's biggest girls' schools were chopped out of voting in the board of trustee election.

But Westlake Girls High School says there was nothing sexist about the oversight.

Board of trustees chairman Alan Curtis confirmed this week that the May 7 election was declared invalid by the Ministry of Education after it was found nearly half the school's parents didn't get voting papers. Most of those were males.

The problem was discovered after the election when male parents rang the school.

They said they were confused and puzzled why they hadn't received any voting papers.

An investigation found that a list of voter names sent to Datacom, the school's IT company, corrupted.

Only the first parent or caregiver listed for each pupil was sent a voting form. And the majority of those listed first were pupils' mothers.

A new election was set for June 18.

It didn't take place because one of the six candidates of the five places on the board decided not to stand.