Election results on the internet

With the coverage of yesterday's election results on the internet it made me realise just how much up to date infomation is available.

Aside from TV3's Vote '05 being broadcast live on the internet, xtra.co.nz had results that were supposedly updated every 5 minutes, at times it took 10 mins to recieve an update however. With the xtra coverage, you were able to see the allocation of seats in Parliament as the results came in. Also you could change between a map of New Zealand coloured in with either the Party or the candidates colour (eg, Red for Labour or Blue for National). By clicking on an electorate you could get the up to date results for the candiadate or party.

The Elections website had an incredible amount of detail in the results. It surprised me that after all the votes had been counted in an electorate you could access details about the number of votes case at each polling booth for each candidate (not the Party vote however). The website also included results of advanced votes and other breakdowns of the voting.

It made me think about the infomation available across the internet. Anyone interested in the election results could go to any number of websites get results as they are released. For New Zealanders overseas, the internet allows them to easily keep up to date with events in New Zealand.