Every single election year, thousands of ballots are wasted. Of the nearly 2.7 million who chose to vote in this year’s municipal election (62 per cent), 4,379 submitted ballots that were not counted. This is a good deal more than during the general election in 2021, when just under 4,000 met the same fate. It is the board in the various constituencies that decides whether they are approved or not. According to the Norwegian Electoral Directorate’s website, these are the most common reasons why a vote is thrown away: it lacks a stamp, such as those news investigated before the election, it does not appear who has voted for the party that is not running in the electoral district. So many votes were thrown in the trash in 2023 The heading shows the rejected votes from the municipal council election in plain text and the county council election in (brackets). Oslo does not have a separate county council. Agder: 255 (154) Akershus: 512 (540) Buskerud: 251 (215) Finnmark: 122 (83) Inland: 406 (139) Møre and Romsdal: 242 (234) Nordland: 452 (166) Oslo: 66 Rogaland: 276 (474) Telemark: 165 (137) Troms: 232 (136) Trøndelag: 475 (150) Vestfold: 182 (231) Vestland: 528 (166) Østfold: 215 (278) Vestland municipalities throw the most These are also the most common reasons in Vestland, election officer Bertil Søfteland told news. There, the number of rejected municipal election votes fell only slightly, from 532 to 528. This is still more than any other county in the country. – It’s actually a bit surprising. If we look at the numbers in Vestland, we have had a very positive trend over several elections. Here Erna Solberg casts her vote in the 2023 municipal council and county council election. Photo: Tuva Aaserud / NTB Søfteland says that he cannot answer for the individual municipalities, and points out that the county council election has a much lower number: only 166. There, Akershus is is the worst, with 540 rejected votes. – I remember that we once exceeded a thousand in total. So the fact that we have a much lower number at this election is very good, says Søfteland. “Tippekupong crossing” In both the municipal and county elections in Vestland, a significant amount of ballots had been thrown away because it was not clear which list or party the voter had voted for. – Some have engaged in tip coupon crossing, and not given us who have to sit and understand them any hint as to which one of the lots they have wanted. – They have ticked all of them, or almost all of them. There are also several people who have brought a ballot box from another municipality with them, and thus vote for a party that does not have local candidates. Support throughout the country – There is no requirement that you use the ballots that are in the room. You can fill in your own, if you fill in the information that is necessary. – Not all parties present lists in all places in Norway. Thus, you can end up voting for someone who is not on the list in exactly the election you vote for. The municipalities in Vestland county have become better at informing about how to vote, says election officer Søfteland. Photo: Julie Helene Günther / Oeystein Gunther Meiner throwers make it easier to vote incorrectly It has also happened in one case that a voter took a seat with them that did not make it clear whether they were voting in the municipal or county council elections. Other reasons were that the voter was registered in the wrong municipality, or tried to vote several times. Bergen is a particularly unusual example in the county. Vestland has not changed some of its routines since the last election, in order to make the counting itself more precise, according to Søfteland. – It was probably also precise four years ago. But what the municipalities have perhaps become better at is guiding people on how to give up their vote. – There are fewer cases where the seat, for example, lacks a publicly approved stamp. Because they don’t make the stated mistakes as often. When they went through the votes in Bergen that the EVA system did not want, they found 35 redundant votes. Photo: Sissel Rikheim / news Tried to vote several times in Bergen In addition, there were voters in Bergen who tried to vote several times, so that 35 votes were rejected. One person did the same in Austevoll, and one in Øygarden. Bjarte Frønsdal at the city council’s office in Bergen explains how this can happen: Each individual vote is registered in a system called Eva. This will alert the election workers if someone comes in and tries to vote again, but votes can also be incorrectly registered, he says. – If it happens that the vote is incorrectly registered, for example by the voter claiming not to have voted before, extra votes will be accepted. – These are all checked by the election administration afterwards before the election is approved.
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That’s why thousands still end up in the trash – news Vestland
