Election Services: Elections and Polls

Elections and Polls

When it comes to assisting with elections and polls, we always work out the details so you don't have to.

We can manage your election from start to finish

Our election services include:

Advertising

Roll Maintenance

Mail outs

Nominations

Candidates

Document Design

Voting Material

Printing

Inquiries

Reminders

Results

Reports

System

Post or online

Whether online or by post; our decades-long experience with these systems will make your election effortless.

Method

STV, FPP, whatever you need

We've accurately processed every kind of return and we can give you the sound advice you need to know to have your election running smoothly in your preferred format.

Process

Easy as a, b, c

Our custom-built vote capture software ensures votes are valid, transparent and auditable. Our processing platform uses a unique two-capture process system in order to provide accurate results.

Data Handling

Getting it right

With experience handling roll data of over 3 million voters in a single election, we're no strangers to database management. Whatever the size of your voter base, we'll have it organised by our expert staff.

Graphic Design

Tailored to you

Our customised and ready made solutions will make designing your voting documentation a breeze. Whatever information you need to provide, we'll make it look good.

Results

Our innovations mean results

Our unique election management software makes sure we deliver the best results, quickly. Launching high speed scanning in 2004 and VoteOnline in 2009, we are proud to be New Zealand leaders in innovative elections.

How an election is run depends on several factors, like your type of organisation and the method of voting.

To give you an idea of the breadth and scope of our services the following is an overview guiding you through each step of a paper-based election. Keep in mind we also provide an online voting service!

Groundwork

Before we begin we provide you with a good idea of what the entire process will look like, this starts with a proposal.

Proposal

Our proposals are comprehensive. They include a budget and a timetable.

Budget

Our budgets are all-inclusive, telling you the overall costs of the election. We strive to ensure that the budget we provide is transparent and that there are no hidden costs.

Timetable

We work with your legislation to ensure our timetable gives you the clearest picture of the key events of your election or poll.

We put the paper work together so you don't have to!

Contract

When you’re happy with our proposal, we can draw up a contract for you.

Preliminary Information

With the contract all signed and sealed, we’ll provide you with key information about the upcoming election such as:

Fact Sheet

Our fact sheets give an overview of the election, including key dates, size of the voting area, number of voters, when the voting period is and how to get special votes.

Candidate Information Handbook

Our handbooks concisely provide your potential candidates all the information they need to know in order to stand in the elections.

Preparation

Data Acquisition

Now that things are underway, we’ll take care of obtaining the necessary voter data. This is obtained in one of two ways:

For Councils

If you’re a council we’ll handle a request to the Electoral Commission on your behalf.

For everyone else

Otherwise we’ll request that data from you. This data includes information like the names, qualifying addresses and postal addresses for your enrolled voters.

A lot goes into preparing an election or poll, but we've done it a million times before so just leave it to us!

Data Processing

Once we have the data, we first process it on your behalf, then run it through our specially developed software system to generate preliminary voter information.

Preliminary Electoral Roll

With the data processed, we create a preliminary electoral roll. This roll lets eligible voters know if they need to update their details or register to vote in your election.

Nominations

We offer the unique service of handling your candidate nominations, from beginning to end. During the preparation stage this involves a number of key things:

Notice of Election

The Notice of Election is generally a legal requirement that we can take care of for you. It informs the public what issues are being voted on and where they can get a nomination form in order to become a candidate. We take care of the design and lodgement of these notices in local media, in consultation with you.

Nomination Form

Candidates need to fill out a Nomination Form in order to stand, and we take care of the design and content of the Nomination Form, tailored to meet the specific legislation and requirements the election is being run under.

Training

We provide in-house training for your staff so that they are able to issue and receive candidate nominations. Our premises can also act as an electoral office, or location from which nomination materials can be lodged and picked up, effectively doubling the ease for candidates to apply.

Finalization

With the preparation done we can begin finalizing things. This starts with obtaining any final data, which for Councils can mean a final request to the Electoral Commission. With this data we can produce several key documents which start with another public notice.

Notice of Day of Election

We take care of creating and lodging a public notice, to local media which provides information like candidate names and key voting dates.

Before the election or poll begins, there's a lot of decisions to make - and we can provide expert advice to help you decide.

Voting Documentation

Our team have many years of experience putting voting documentation together.

Mail File

Our in-house software produces what we call a ‘mail file’, including the necessary unique identifying information and credentials in the case of online voting. Every voting document is uniquely numbered, preventing duplicate voting.

Voting Document

Our team handles the design of the voting document itself. In council elections that often means utilizing standardized software on your behalf, but in smaller elections we can provide end to end design of the voting documents and candidate statement sheet.

Special Voting documentation

Handling special votes in an election is a complicated process, and we are pleased to be able to provide our clients with a comprehensive service in this regard. We handle the following during the finalization stage:

Special Voting Packs

Our team handles the design and production of special voting packs. These packs are kept on premises and issued to voters on request so that voters can obtain one easily.

Training

We provide in-house training for staff where required, so that they are able to issue Special Voting packs to voters.

Processing

Once completed voting documents have been delivered to our processing centre we can start our proven to be accurate and secure approach to vote processing, which includes our unique 2-capture process.

The Process

It all starts with the sorting and then moves on to:

Scrutiny

Our scrutiny stage is where our unique software is able to identify duplicate votes and any kind of voter fraud to ensure that the votes we process are completely valid.

Scanning

Full-page scanning means that our software can run Intelligent Character Recognition in order to capture each vote and alert us to any errors. This process is tried-and-true and has been improved and refined since we introduced it to New Zealand in 2004.

Validation

Part 1 of our 2-capture process, validation means our processing team can catch any discrepancies.

Approval

Part 2 of our 2-capture process, approval guarantees that every paper is viewed and captured accurately.

Reconciliation

Reconciliation is a third check which catches discrepancies between the validation and approval.

Our vote processing has been proven to provide accurate results, is exhaustive and something we’re quite proud of!

Audits

Our process provides clear auditable results. We have electronic and manual audits that make sure what we have received has gone right through the system and that it has been marked off and captured. We ensure that what we have received is completely processed.

Close of Voting

Perhaps the most important part! We always provide you with the results in a timely manner.

Results

After the close of voting we are able to give progress and preliminary results to you while processing is underway in order to keep you well informed of the situation.

Notice of Results

Once we have given you the final results, we produce a public notice and lodge the results with local media.

Post-Processing

Our services are uniquely comprehensive, so even once the voting is all tallied and concluded, the work doesn’t stop there. We offer a number of post-processing services.

Voting Document Transfer

We take care of what happens next with the processed voting documentation. For councils that means delivering all the voting material to the court as per the legislation.

We offer a number of unique services to help you tidy up after the election or poll!

Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) Statistics

For councils, we are able to provide voting statistics to the DIA on their behalf, one less thing to worry about.

Donations & Expenses Returns

As part of our comprehensive candidate nominations process we manage the return of Electoral Donations and Expenses forms [See Local Electoral Act [2001] - 112A] and follow up with candidates who fail to return them.

Candidate Refunds

Finally; we handle the refund of nomination deposits for candidates who meet the refund criteria (FPP regulations and STV regulations).

We can also help you with

You're here

Elections and Polls

We can take care of any aspect of your election or poll to ensure a successful and hassle-free process.

Community Consultations

We can give you the edge you need to successfully engage with your constituents.

Representation Reviews

We can give you valuable assistance with this local authority requirement.

Electoral Training

Our expertise in the field means that we’ll be able to assist you with training on any level.

Database Management

We can assist you with compiling an address database, tidying up your existing data, getting your data certified by NZ Post and putting processes in place to help maintain your data in the future.