The Statement
A Facebook post1 claims that "200,000 plus votes" were removed from the New Zealand general election results earlier in October.
The meme, which includes an image of Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, carries the tagline: "New Zealand election rigged."
At the time of publication, the October 19 post has been shared more than 180 times and attracted more than 15,000 views.
The Analysis
The post makes a false claim about the "removal" of "200,000 plus" votes from the New Zealand election based on an apparent comparison between voting tallies for the 2017 and 2020 elections. There is no evidence the election was "rigged" or the result was tampered with in any way.
The 2020 national New Zealand poll was held on October 172. The preliminary count3 shows 2,383,796 votes were cast at the election, from which the Jacinda Ardern-led Labour Party4 won 49.1 per cent of the total.
In the 2017 election, official results from the Electoral Commission showed 2,591,896 votes cast, excluding informal and disallowed votes5. This is a difference of 208,100 from the 2020 preliminary results and near the "200,000 plus" figure cited in the post.
However, the preliminary 2020 results do not represent the final voting total, which is predicted to include another 480,000 special declaration votes6. The official results will be released on November 6.
A spokesperson for the New Zealand Electoral Commission told AAP FactCheck in an email that the claim in the post is false.
"The Electoral Commission can assure New Zealanders that no votes are missing and votes have not been removed from the count," the spokesperson said.
"It's estimated that there will be approximately 480,000 special declaration votes taking the total number of votes cast this election to around 2.8 million."
The estimate of special votes was also included in the commission's election night media release7. Special votes include votes cast overseas or by telephone dictation, by people voting outside of their electorate or who enrolled late, Wellington lawyer Graeme Edgler8 wrote in an explanatory blog9.
The Commission noted in its statement to AAP FactCheck that "New Zealand has a robust and transparent electoral system with many checks and balances".
"The process for counting votes is thorough and careful. It is subject to independent scrutiny from candidate and party scrutineers, Justices of the Peace, and the judiciary if there are recounts or electoral petitions."
False - Content that has no basis in fact.
* AAP FactCheck is accredited by the Poynter Institute's International Fact-Checking Network, which promotes best practice through a stringent and transparent Code of Principles. https://aap.com.au/
