Rachel Boyack last week after the final election results were announced. A judicial recount has since confirmed her win in the electorate. Photo: RNZ / Samantha Gee
Rachel Boyack has been confirmed as Nelson's MP, following a judicial recount.
The recount took place over the past two days in the presence of Judge Chris Tuohy in Nelson, with each vote manually recounted and checked.
It found four instances where a single ballot was attributed to the wrong candidate, putting Boyack 26 votes ahead of National's Blair Cameron, compared to the official result margin of 29.
The recount showed Boyack received 17,541 votes (compared to 17,533 on the official results) and Cameron with 17,515 (17,504).
The ACT Party's Chris Baillie received 2692 votes, the Green Party's Jace Hobbs, 2791 votes, New Zealand Loyal's Peter Vaughan received 1316 votes and Progressive Party Aotearoa NZ's Bruce Dyer, 169 votes.
There were also 646 informal votes, down from 673 informals counted in the official results.
Judge Tuohy said he allowed a small number of votes that had been categorised as informal as the ballot papers evidenced the voter's clear intention to vote for a particular candidate.
Of the 6685 special votes cast in the electorate, Judge Tuohy said 147 were disallowed; 95 because the voter was not enrolled, 37 because the declaration was not signed or witnessed, eight because dual votes had been made, and the remainder either arrived too late, did not state the grounds for a special vote or did not include a declaration or a ballot paper.
He said the New Zealand voter should take comfort in the integrity of the vote-counting process, with the Electoral Commission staff and counters being professional and diligent throughout the recount.
Boyack said it was the privilege of her life to be re-elected as the MP for Nelson and she was looking forward to continuing to work as a strong advocate for the region.
She said she was looking forward to getting back to Parliament and working under Chris Hipkins' leadership to hold the new government to account.
That will include ensuring investment continues in public transport, the Nelson Hospital upgrade, housing and significant economic development projects across the region.
Editorial note: This article has been updated to refer to the official count result, rather than the election day result.
