This is an HTML version of an attachment to the Official Information request 'Procedures for receiving, reporting, transporting and counting special votes and overseas votes 2023 General Election'.
CHAPTER 24 – SORT AND SEND 
CONTENTS 

Sort and send ............................................................................................................................ ... . 1 
1.1 
Before you begin .................................................................................................... ................1 
1.2 
Receiving voting place supplies at your headquarters ................................... .. ....................1 
1.3 
Key tasks .................................................................................................. ... .........................2 
1.4 
Checklist .......................................................................................... .. ..................................3 

Receiving materials at HQ ............................................................ .. ............................................. 5 
2.1 
Overview .................................................................... . ... .....................................................5 
2.2 
Resources ............................................................. .. ..............................................................5 
2.3 
Process for returned materials ................. .. .. .......................................................................5 
2.4 
Receiving Materials into EMS on E+1  ... ................................................................................6 
2.5 
Returning shared electorate materials to their home electorate HQ .....................................7 
2.6 
Receiving materials from another HQ .....................................................................................8 
2.7 
Searching for ‘missing’ materials .......................................................................................... 10 

Sending and receiving special votes .............................................................................................. 11 
3.1 
Sorting special votes by electorate ...................................................................................... 11 
under the Official Information Act 1982
3.2 
Check and count all special vote envelopes ......................................................................... 11 
3.3 
Initial load of special votes into EMS .................................................................................... 12 
3.4 
Checking special votes before sending ................................................................................ 16 
3.5 
Sending special votes to other electorates .......................................................................... 18 
Released 
3.6 
Receiving your special votes back from other electorates................................................... 20 
3.7 
Special votes received in error ............................................................................................. 21 
3.8 
Special vote reports .............................................................................................................. 22 
3.9 
Checking special votes were received on time .................................................................... 24 
Chapter 24 – Sort and send 

3.10  Votes received late at HQ ..................................................................................................... 24 
 
under the Official Information Act 1982
Released 
 
 
Chapter 24 – Sort and send 



1.3 
KEY TASKS 
The sort and send process starts on Sunday E+1 and includes: 
•  checking that all returned ballot boxes contain the correct voting materials  
•  scanning all key voting materials into the Election Management System (EMS) as part of 
materials tracking, and ensuring all of these materials have the status of ‘returned’ 
•  preparing shared general electorate ballot boxes to be sent back to their home electorates 
•  completing the initial load of special votes in EMS 
•  preparing other electorates’ special votes to be sent back to their home electorates 
•  preparing home general ordinary and home Māori ordinary voting materials for post-election 
processing. 
under the Official Information Act 1982
Released 
2  
 
Chapter 24 – Sort and send