Discrepancies in vote counts were reported in Nishinomiya and Morioka during the recent elections, with the number of counted votes surpassing the voter turnout by 118 and 90 votes respectively in different categories.
In the recent elections held on October 8, discrepancies were reported by the Nishinomiya City Election Management Committee, which announced that the counts from the voting site in Hyogo Prefecture's 7th district exceeded the total number of voters by 118 votes in the single-member district and 90 votes in the proportional representation section. Normally, if the number of counted votes is less than the total number of voters, the committee counts those as 'returned ballots'. However, in this instance, the excess votes were categorized as 'negative returned ballots', and it was stated that these discrepancies did not affect the results for candidates’ success or ranking. The committee plans to investigate the causes of this anomaly, considering possibilities such as double issuance of ballots or arithmetic errors in counting voters, with the latter potentially resulting in revised turnout statistics.
