The District Court of New Zealand has confirmed three applications for judicial recounts of 2023 general election electorate results have been filed.
The cutoff for application for judicial recount closed this afternoon.
As expected, Labour has asked for a recount in Tāmaki Makaurau, where Te Pāti Māori candidate Takutai Moana Kemp overturned a 495-vote election night defeat to flip the seat from MP Peeni Henare by a mere four votes when the final tally was announced on Friday.
At the time, Henare said he and his team would take time to digest the result before deciding to call for a recount. NZME yesterday reported Henare had indicated he would be seeking a recount.
“Four votes is too close to call, so we’re going to ask for a recount,” he said.
Should a recount fall in favour of Henare and Labour, the proportionality of the House won’t change, but the number of MPs will be reduced to 122 and Te Pāti Māori will have five MPs as opposed to the six it currently has.
National has applied for judicial recounts in both Nelson and Mt Albert.
Blair Cameron (Nelson) and Melissa Lee (Mt Albert) both had election night victories overturned in the official count.
Cameron led incumbent Labour MP Rachel Boyack by 54 votes after the preliminary count on October 14 but trailed by 29 after the final count.
Lee, who lost to former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern by more than 21,000 votes in 2020, drastically reduced her margin against new opponent Helen White to just 20 votes.
The next stage is for the allocated judges to direct a recount in each of the above electorates at a place and time to be determined by the judge. This is to be commenced within three working days after receiving the application. Each of the candidates are entitled to have one scrutineer observe the process.
Nelson will begin at 11am on Friday in Nelson, while the two Auckland-based seats will start their recounts at 9am on Monday next week.
A Judicial recount involves a District Court judge overseeing a recount of every vote cast in the electorate in question. Every ballot is checked against the electoral roll to ensure voters haven’t voted more than once, are enrolled and voted correctly. That judge has sole discretion as to what is and isn’t counted.
Following the recount, if the judge finds that the public declaration was incorrect, the judge will order the Electoral Commission to give an amended declaration.
