23 Nov 2008

Election officials investigate suspected double-voting

11:01 am on 23 November 2008

The Chief Electoral Office is investigating a number of cases where people may have voted more than once in the general election.

The office released official election results on Saturday, after the recount of all votes cast on election day, and the counting of 270,000 special votes.

The Chief Electoral Officer, Robert Peden, said the office was still looking into reports of people voting more than once.

"We are still receiving those reports in from returning officers, and we'll deal with those once we've got them in," he said.

"At the last election, 2005, there were 22 cases that we ended up referring to the police."

Robert Peden said double-voting can lead to a fine and a prison sentence.

The final count resulted in the Green Party gaining an extra seat and the National Party losing one.