http://www.kansas.com/news/politics-government/article27951310.html

It isn't just "the extreme right wing Republicans" who support Voter ID laws: http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2014/05/12/where-does-the-republican-party-stand-on-voter-id/

The rate of invalid votes in South Auckland and Maori electorates at…

Those results are, however, at the *electorate* level. The number of fraud cases is around 100 at the *nationwide* level in NZ. That means you're actually looking for electorate-level rates where…

Yup. Although when a big recount happens involving courts and farting around challenging the rights of voters, then it's likely that a greater number would end up being discounted than what is picked up in the general statistical analysis of voter qualification. When it matters,…

No race was that close.

Occasionally one is. But in that case, they go through the votes carefully anyway.
Going back to 1996 (earliest complete data set) we have had precisely three instances where…

And had Rob focused on the issue in New Zealand highlighting the almost complete absence of voter fraud and the insignificant effect of the fraud that has occurred the post would have been just as useful.

Yes.

Click through the link on the to the evidence on this page for the select committee inquiry into the 2014 general election.

The 214 submissions to the Justice & Electoral inquiry are here

Yes exactly. It'd be necessary to have an election in which the list MP allocation was already very close to a margin somewhere, or maybe a very close electorate seat , and then some reasonable evidence…

No race was that close.

Occasionally one is. But in that case, they go through the votes carefully anyway.

Actually, it is 96.66. Which makes your "no impact" argument about 100 times stronger.

0.004% of the votes cast in 2014 (2,416,479) is 9,666. Had they all…

It could, if there was any significant fraud to remove. If not, then it's hard not to see the point of it being two particularly right wing tendencies. Firstly, increasing barriers to…

Of course increasing the barriers to voting will not benefit the democratic institution, although I would personally…

Exactly.

The problems with the proposals to change the rules around electoral law can be discussed without invoking comparisons that are extreme.

We do not have the same social structure as the US. We do…

Day old white bread, grated tasty, rancid marge.

It's great how much progress we've made in baked goods since then. I'll have the field mushrooms with baby spinach on ciabatta.

I'm wondering if anything's come from the minor furore which surrounded people taking photos of their ballot papers from inside the polling booths, then sharing.

At the time, the Electoral Commission seemed…

Same here. Carrying on, if you assume that it merely takes scrutiny time to identify fraud and so it's not until some time after the election that fraud is identified, it should still…

It seemed that way to me. Obviously, there's a difference in scale, but the comparison itself seems relevant enough.

I have seen one (1) scrutineer actually write down the numbers we call out.

And yes, as seems the consensus here, voter ID is, IMO, a horrible idea. I'm perfectly comfortable with…

I don't know about that. The bit that's old fashioned to me is thinking that a large database is a difficult thing to collate…

Give us a real reason to do this, or don’t do it.

ETA: Not…

Well, none that I can think of. If anyone else can think of a good reason to fix our…

And I don't agree, for reasons I lay out at some length in the post. If someone wants to give some reasons why they disagree; great. But saying "I disgree because [reason withheld]" doesn't lead…

I'd put it differently. I'd say "Invoking Godwin's Law when nobody mentioned ze war is a good way to express moral outrage when you actually have nothing to say."

Political parties use the roll extensively at election time, including scrutinising the final printed rolls against the page and line numbers announced by clerks staffing the booths. That helps…

Thanks for clarifying that, Rob. It's not a position I agree with, but it's one I can respect.

In my view, the ban on election-day advertising is egregious, and has become even more egregious now that a third of the country chooses to vote with advertising all around them. I agree with David Farrar on this: those…

As much as I like it, the ban on election day advertising is a grievous violation of free speech.

Invoking the US Republican party as an equivalence to the NZ National party is effectively godwinning your own post.

Both of these changes were proposed by the Electoral Commission. Currently there are no restrictions on election advertising in and around advance voting booths. Scrutineers can’t even be…

To what degree do political parties scrutinise the roll at present, and what examples are there of anything coming of it?