Batch counting made Iceland referendum results look tied

A batch-counting method made early referendum results from Iceland’s Southwest constituency appear exactly tied, mbl.is reported.

The first figures showed 9,900 votes in favour of continuing membership negotiations with the European Union and 9,900 against, from 19,800 counted votes.

Tamar Klara Lipka Þormarsdóttir, chair of the constituency’s electoral committee, told Morgunblaðið that the figures reflected how the votes were counted. Ballots were grouped into batches of 100, and only complete batches were included in the figures released at that stage.

“At a certain point, the counting was simply stopped, and the number of completed batches was added up, both yes and no,” she said.

Votes that did not complete a full batch were therefore left out. “That was simply what the figures were at that time, and you do not change them,” Tamar said.

The Southwest constituency was the only one to report its initial figures in exact hundreds, although Tamar said most, if not all, electoral committees counted votes in batches of 100.

She said initial figures could not be relied on completely. In the final result from the constituency, 53% voted against continuing the negotiations and 47% voted in favour.

“You never know with these figures, but that is simply how the counting works,” she said.