Preliminary result of citizens initiated referendum

The Chief Electoral Officer has released the preliminary result of the Citizens Initiated Referendum on the question “Should a smack as part of good parental correction be a criminal offence in New Zealand?”.

2009 Citizens Initiated Referendum Preliminary Result

*An informal vote is where the voter has not clearly indicated the response they wish to vote for.

Voter turnout on the basis of the preliminary result is 54.04%. Turnout is calculated by taking the total votes cast of 1,622,952 (being total valid and invalid votes) as a percentage of the total number of voters enrolled as at 30 July 2009 (3,002,968).

The number of invalid votes cast was 802 or 0.05% of total votes cast. Invalid votes are excluded from the count and include, for example, voting papers that cannot be processed because the voter has made the barcode unreadable, or voting papers cancelled as a result of replacement voting papers being issued.

The Chief Electoral Office will now complete checks and count voting papers still to be received, before releasing the final result.

• All voting papers must be returned by noon Tuesday 25 August to be included in the final result.
• Voting papers from New Zealand must be postmarked no later than Friday 21 August to count.
• Voting papers from overseas must be postmarked no later than Thursday 20 August to count (to account for time zone differences and the close of the poll).

“The final result will be declared after the deadline of noon Tuesday 25 August for voting papers to be returned to the Returning Officer,” says Robert Peden, Chief Electoral Officer. “Our target to release the final result is by 5.00pm Tuesday 25 August.”

The preliminary result is available from www.electionresults.govt.nz. This includes a breakdown of votes by electorate http://www.electionresults.govt.nz/2009_citizens_referendum/2009_referendum_results.html.