Wellington City Council electoral officerTuesday 28 September 2010, 10:02AM
Media release from Wellington City Council electoral
officer
Wellington City Council Candidate Mark Jacobs has today withdrawn
from the race for a place on the Capital and Coast District Health
Board.
Electoral Officer Ross Bly has a simple message: "If you haven't
already voted, please don't vote for Mark Jacobs - it is now
pointless to do so."
As of this evening, about 14,400 people in the Wellington region -
about 10 percent of eligible voters - had cast their votes in the
election for the Health Board. Originally 21 candidates were
contesting the seven elected seats on the Board.
The C&CDHB candidates are elected under the single-transferable
(STV) vote system.
The votes cast so far for Mr Jacobs will not count - and all the
candidates who received a preferential vote 'below' Mr Jacobs will
move up one position. If, for example, a voter gave Mr Jacobs their
number 1 preference, the computerised STV calculator used in the
STV system will automatically remove his name and pass his vote to
the next preferred candidate and so on.
The mailing of voting documents to all eligible electors began on
Friday 17 September. All electors should have received their
documents no later than Wednesday 22 September.
The voting period ends at 12 noon on Saturday 9 October - all
voting documents must be in the hands of the Electoral Officer by
12 noon on Saturday 9 October.
Special voting
Special votes are available to those electors:
- whose names do not appear on the final electoral roll, but who
qualify as electors
- who did not receive a voting document
- who spoil or damage a voting document previously posted to
them
- whose names appear on the unpublished electoral roll.
You can apply for a special vote by:
- contacting the Council's Electoral Officer, or
- coming to the polling booth at the City Service Centre (101
Wakefield Street) during the three-week period before polling
day.
Special votes require the completion of a statutory declaration.
This is a legal requirement and protects against possible duplicate
voting.