Thousands of Auckland special votes ruled invalid in final election count

More than 4000 special votes in Auckland were deemed incorrect and discarded. Photo / Supplied

By RNZ

Nearly half the special votes cast in Auckland’s local body elections have been discarded.

More than 10,000 special votes were received, delaying the final results by one day until Saturday afternoon – one week after voting ended.

Auckland Council said 4162 special votes were deemed invalid, because of incorrect or missing declaration details, or outdated enrolment details.

In total, 350,677 votes were returned from just 29.3% of enrolled Aucklanders. In 2022’s election, voter turnout was 35.5%.

Five new councillors out of 20 would join the region’s governing body, alongside returning mayor Wayne Brown, who retained his position by more than 100,000 votes.

Victoria Short, who stood on the mayor’s “Fix Auckland” ticket, was elected as a councillor for the Albany ward.

She will join incumbent councillor John Watson, but Wayne Walker, who had been a councillor for Albany since the Super City was formed in 2010 and a Rodney District councillor since 2000, has officially lost his seat.

Matt Winiata will join Daniel Newman as Manurewa-Papakura ward councillors.

Former local board member John Gillion has been elected as a North Shore councillor alongside Richard Hills.

Maurice Williamson was re-elected to Auckland Council. Photo / Getty Images

Bo Burns has been elected to the Howick ward, with the other spot going to incumbent Maurice Williamson.

Three councillors resigned and did not stand in local elections this year.

Former Whau councillor Kerrin Leoni only ran for mayor and not for a council seat. Labour candidate Sarah Paterson-Hamlin has taken that spot.

Council governance and engagement general manager Lou-Ann Ballantyne said the number of special votes was record-breaking, despite almost half of them being thrown out.

“This unprecedented number of special votes shows people were motivated to participate and then able to easily access voting papers to participate.”

The council said it would be conducting an evaluation and review of this year’s elections process, which would be released publicly before the next election.

– RNZ