Recounting votes until late at night is really not necessary, says the ministry

ANP votes count at the Jaarbeurs

NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 12:10

Volunteers who help count votes on November 22 don’t have to worry about having to stay late into the night if something doesn’t seem right. If a recount is necessary, it can wait until the next day, the Ministry of the Interior explicitly states in an evaluation of the Provincial Council elections in March.

The law already states that counters can stop counting once on election night. A possible recount can be done the next day at the central polling station of a municipality. But that is not known everywhere. Many people think that they have to continue working at once until all counting discrepancies have been resolved.

That is why outgoing Minister De Jonge writes in the evaluation that he “clarifies” the instructions to the polling stations on how to deal with it.

About 50,000 volunteers are needed for the early elections in November, and municipalities often struggle to find poll workers and vote counters. An evaluation of the Provincial Council and Water Board elections on March 15 shows that counting votes is now difficult work, partly due to the size of the ballot papers.

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