Plain language law

New Zealand law explained for everyone

Electoral Act 1993

Elections - Polling at elections

160: Scrutineers

You could also call this:

"People chosen to watch voting at polling places"

Illustration for Electoral Act 1993

When you vote in an election, candidates can choose people to watch what happens at the polling place. You can be a scrutineer if a candidate or a party appoints you. The candidate or party must write down your name and sign the paper to appoint you.

Before you can start watching, you must promise to follow the rules in section 203. You must make this promise on a special form that the Electoral Commission has approved. Someone must witness you signing the form.

There can only be a certain number of scrutineers in a polling place. This number is the same as the number of issuing officers at the polling place. As a scrutineer, you can leave and come back to the polling place at any time while voting is happening.

You can tell people who has voted, and it is not against the law. But you cannot be a candidate and a scrutineer at the same time.

A candidate can appoint one or more scrutineers for each polling place. If no candidate is standing for a party, the party's secretary can appoint scrutineers. The Electoral Commission has rules about how many scrutineers can be in a polling place.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM309803.

Topics:
Government and voting > Elections
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Part 6Elections
Polling at elections

160Scrutineers

  1. Each constituency candidate may appoint 1 or more scrutineers for each polling place at any election.

  2. If, at an election in a district, no constituency candidate is standing for a political party that is listed in the part of the ballot paper that relates to the party vote, the secretary of the party may appoint 1 or more scrutineers for each polling place in the district.

  3. Every appointment of a scrutineer—

  4. must be in writing; and
    1. must be signed by the constituency candidate or, as the case requires, the secretary of the party.

      1. Every scrutineer must, before being allowed to act, declare that he or she will comply with section 203.

      2. The declaration must—

      3. be in a form that the Electoral Commission has approved; and
        1. be witnessed as specified in the form.

          1. The number of scrutineers for a candidate or for a political party who may be present in a polling place may not exceed the number of issuing officers designated for the polling place.

          2. A scrutineer may at any time during the hours of polling leave and re-enter the polling place for which he or she is appointed.

          3. Nothing in this Act renders it unlawful for a scrutineer to communicate to a person information as to the names of persons who have voted.

          4. No candidate may act as a scrutineer under this section.

          Notes
          • Section 160: substituted, on , by section 63 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2002 (2002 No 1).
          • Section 160(4): replaced, on , by section 79 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 9).
          • Section 160(4A): inserted, on , by section 79 of the Electoral Amendment Act 2017 (2017 No 9).