Recount of polling stations in Tilburg completed, almost all votes clarified

In Tilburg, the majority of the number of unexplained votes was cleared up after an afternoon of recounting. In the city, 6,000 votes cast for the House of Representatives elections were recounted today, because in four polling stations the number of votes cast was lower than the number of voting cards submitted.

A parliamentary committee spoke of “inexplicable voting differences”. The recount was approved this morning by the House of Representatives, which returned specially for this purpose over the weekend.

All votes have now been recounted and most of the unexplained votes have been found. 75 votes were irreducible and 71 of them were traced today, the municipality of Tilburg said.

For example, something went wrong at one polling station, where an incorrect number of votes had been reported. For example, this went wrong when completing the results forms. “In this specific case: someone has 22 votes and that is said, and a 2 is written down. And no second 2,” Mayor Weterings of Tilburg explains to NOS.

Weterings does not expect that the recount will have any consequences for the results of the House of Representatives elections. The Electoral Council will meet on Monday. Due to the recount, a new official report must be drawn up.

There are now four unexplained votes at the four polling stations involved. That is certainly within the margin, says the mayor. At one polling station there are still two unexplained votes, one at two polling stations and at one polling station all votes are now correct.

Weterings calls it “good for the democratic process” that the votes have now been counted again. About forty to fifty people worked on this for hours.

The chance that a recount of the votes will lead to major differences in the results is very small. VVD MP Ellian previously said the recount is important for the “reliability and verifiability” of the elections. At one of the four polling stations the difference was more than two percent. According to the rules, this requires more research.