Palmerston North City Council Candidates Information Booklet

17SCRUTINEERSCandidates may appoint scrutineers to oversee various functions of the election. Thesefunctions are:- The scrutiny of the rolls- The preliminary count (after the closing of voting)- The official countScrutineers however, may not oversee early processing of voting papers where this isundertaken. This means that, at 12.00 noon on Saturday 12 October, most votingdocuments will have been processed and, consequently, scrutineers will be able to view onlya very small part of the overall process. The role of scrutineers has for all intents andpurposes been largely replaced by the presence of a Justice of the Peace during the earlyprocessing period. During the early processing period, the use of dual passwords and timelocks on the computer software prevents access to results and all stages of the process areoverseen by a Justice of the Peace.Each candidate, nevertheless, may appoint one or more scrutineers for each of the abovefunctions, but only one scrutineer for each candidate may be present at any one time.The scrutiny of rolls, progressive and counting of votes will be carried out at the ElectionServices processing centre located at Level 10, 45 Queen Street, Auckland, and willcommence at 7.00 am daily from Friday, 20 September 2013 until completed (the startingtime may be varied). This processing centre is being used by a number of local authorities.Each scrutineer must be appointed by a candidate, such appointment to be in writingaddressed to the Electoral Officer. The letter of appointment must be received by theElectoral Officer no later than 12.00 noon on Friday 11 October 2013. This date is alegal requirement, and scrutineers cannot be appointed by candidates after that time.Letters of appointment can be either delivered or emailed to the Electoral Officer.A standard letter for the appointment of a scrutineer, together with further information, will besent to each candidate shortly after the close of nominations.Each appointed scrutineer must report initially to the Electoral Officer or other electoralofficial. Each scrutineer is required to complete a signed declaration pledging not to discloseany information coming to his or her knowledge, and will be issued with a nametag. Whendeparting the premises, scrutineers are to return their nametag to the Electoral Officer orother electoral official.A scrutineer cannot be a candidate, a member or employee of any local authority for anelection being conducted, or under 18 years of age.52 Palmerston North City Council Elections 2013