#IMadeMyMark: Making sense of the three biggest Voting Day bugbears

VOTING day went off relatively smoothly around the country, especially when compared to elections in many other countries.

However, three main issues have surfaced, sparking concern among voters who are eagerly awaiting the final results.

If you, like many, are confused by the significance of the seemingly high number of spoilt ballots; or baffled by the nightmarish stories of people who managed to vote more than once; or even just wonder how it all influences the result, and what it means for the party you voted for, here are some answers to three of the most frequently asked questions as the dust settles on #SAElection2019.

Do the extra votes cast by people mean anything significant to the results?

Much has been said on social and traditional media about how some people, including a prominent member of a political party, were able to vote more than once due to some loopholes in the process at voting stations.

Here is what we know so far:

• The indelible ink isn’t as indelible as many feel it was in previous elections

https://twitter.com/uMthandeni/status/1126473456927891457

However, the IEC says they are looking into this matter.

Thanks for the feedback. The Electoral Commission has ordered an investigation into the effectiveness of the indelible ink marker pens supplied for the elections. The investigation will be done with the CSIR and with the full cooperation and support of the supplier.

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) May 9, 2019

• The scanners at the doors were not linked to the internet

https://twitter.com/sthembete/status/1126238861653417984

The ID “zip-zip” scanners, as activist and radio personality, Khaya Sithole, explained in a thread on Twitter, were only intended to check if people were registered to vote and were listed on the voters roll at the particular voting station they presented themselves at.

ALSO READ: #IMadeMyMark: How to report your problems with elections 2019

However, due to changes in the Electoral Act to allow people to vote at any station for these types of elections, some logistical problems have cropped up.

However, if you are not registered there then they have to create a new form to fill in the details that would ordinarily be in the printed voters roll. The problem with that manual process is that – as you can guess – it remains at that station until the end of voting.

— Khaya Sithole (@CoruscaKhaya) May 9, 2019

• The IEC is able to find out who has voted more than once

The process of reconciliation is when the voters roll showing how many people on the list at each station arrived to cast a vote establishes the number of regular votes. This is added to the number of special votes cast – which also reflects on each station’s voters roll as special votes have to be cast with the voting station where a voter is registered.  This gives each station a number of votes that should have been cast by these people.

Then, the people who voted outside of their regular voting stations, who should have filled in a VEC4 form, are counted to give a voting station the number of extra votes that should be in the ballot boxes, over and above the number of votes cast by voters on the list.

These two numbers added together should tally with the number of the national ballot in the boxes.

There may be a few less provincial ballots if some of the voters only cast national ballots due to them being at a voting station outside of their province on voting day.

Sincere apologies for our election officials not following due process, but we can assure you that as you filled in a VEC4 form for voting outside of your voting district, there is still a record of your voting in #SAElections2019 elections & that your vote will be counted.

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) May 9, 2019

If a person is found to have filled in a VEC4 form at more than one station and has also cast a ballot at their own voting station, then there should be paperwork to catch them out which would provide evidence that they have voted more than once.

However, this investigation would take time and effort and while it might come up through a thorough audit, it probably won’t be available before the deadline for final results to be announced.

Also, some voters have reported that they were not asked to fill in a VEC4 form when casting their ballots at stations other than the one in which their name appears on the roll of registered voters, and in theory, people who are not registered at all might also have been able to vote using their South African ID, if they were able to convince the electoral officials at a station that they were registered elsewhere, especially in the voting stations where the “zip-zip” scanners were not working.

It is clear that more than a few loopholes in the process have been identified and the IEC has said it will be doing a full audit and will be reporting back with findings. What the implication of these findings will remain a question on many minds.

Where evidence is found to support electoral fraud, the Electoral Commission will firstly quarantine the results of the affected voting districts and secondly will pursue criminal charges against the perpetrators. #SAElections2019

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) May 8, 2019

Why is the number of spoilt ballots significant? 

The number of spoilt ballots is very significant as it impacts the number of votes each party needs in order to gain a seat in the National Assembly or Provincial Legislature. The percentage of the total registered voters who arrive at the polls, the voter turnout, is used rather than the number of valid votes cast. This means that votes spoilt make it harder for each party to get a seat.

Over 160K spoilt votes so far of people trying to be funny on the ballot paper. This could have been 3 seats for a political party in parliament 🤦🏾‍♂ pic.twitter.com/8R9bOuhJfr

— KatlehoMK (@KatlehoMK) May 10, 2019

There is a common misconception that spoilt ballots “all go to the ruling party” and this is patently false. In fact, even the ruling party is affected by how many spoilt ballots there are in an election as it impacts on how many seats their votes entitle them to.

This year’s election has been interesting in the way that the number of spoilt ballots had – even before the full voting count had been tallied – added up to more than any one party would have needed to gain about three seats in the National Assembly.

https://twitter.com/NewsSadc/status/1126511525907259395

What isn’t clear though is how many ballots were intentionally spoilt by people dissatisfied with the choices on offer, and how many were accidental, or due to inadequate voter education.

https://twitter.com/Rorz_Momps/status/1126713056006774784

Where evidence is found to support electoral fraud, the Electoral Commission will firstly quarantine the results of the affected voting districts and secondly will pursue criminal charges against the perpetrators. #SAElections2019

— IEC South Africa (@IECSouthAfrica) May 8, 2019

How many votes does each party need to get one seat in Parliament?

As mentioned in the discussion on spoilt ballots, the number of seats needed is determined by the total voter turnout. The amount of votes cast is divided by the number of seats in the National Assembly for the national ballot, and the provincial legislature, in the case of the provincial ballots.
This system is called proportional representation or the PR system and is designed to allow the greatest inclusion of all parties in a multi-party democratic system to be represented in parliament.

#The number of votes needed to win a seat depends on how many people voted. The national assembly has 400 seats. So if ten million people Vote on May 8, a party would need 25 000 votes to get a seat.

— Jabu (@JivoJa) May 10, 2019

This is why some people feel so strongly about the need to turn up at the polls even if you don’t have a clue who you want to vote for, or if you are completely dissatisfied with everyone on the voting list.

ALSO READ: #IMadeMyMark: Spoiling to have your say

While the choice of whether to vote or not is also a democratic right. There are some that argue that not voting at all is counter-intuitive, especially if you are unhappy about the way the country is being run.

https://twitter.com/Sabelo912/status/1126409924412682240

In the end though, until all the votes are counted and the percentage of turnout known, it is only possible to estimate based on the results in past elections exactly how many votes any party needs to get a seat.

Dr Sithembile Mbete explains in this tweet…

https://twitter.com/sthembete/status/1126411856170618880

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