An 18-year old Sydney man with two lesbian mothers says he has been denied a vote on marriage equality by the Australian Bureau of Statistics despite the fact he is properly enrolled to take part in the postal survey.
The ABS has said it will investigate the case but Patrick Cairnduff told Guardian Australia he is “incredibly frustrated” at the prospect peers who bullied him at school will get the right to vote on whether his mothers can marry while he may be excluded.
The case is the first known instance of the ABS refusing to provide a vote to a person enrolled on the cut-off date of 24 August, and suggests the Australian Electoral Commission roll provided to the ABS may have excluded some eligible electors.
Cairnduff enrolled with the AEC in the federal electorate of Grayndler in Sydney in February, just before his 18th birthday. The AEC allows 16 and 17 year olds to provisionally enrol then automatically adds them to the full roll when they turn 18.
After the postal survey was called and before the 24 August cut-off for eligibility, Cairnduff said he “triple-checked” his enrolment using the AEC website, confirming that he was enrolled to vote.
Guardian Australia has seen the confirmation of enrolment sent to Cairnduff by the AEC on 22 February and independently checked using the AEC website that he is currently enrolled.
When Cairnduff did not receive a postal survey form by the 25 September deadline, he applied for a replacement form and made inquiries to the ABS postal survey hotline.
The ABS replied acknowledging his request for a replacement form. “Unfortunately we have not been able to verify your details against the commonwealth electoral roll so cannot process your request at this time,” the customer assistance team said in an email.
The ABS suggested to Cairnduff he could check his enrolment online and “resubmit his request” but did not explain why it was not able to verify his details.
The ABS made no promise it would be able to supply him with a vote, telling him on the hotline it would investigate and call him back in two to three days.
“They can find me on the AEC website but can’t find me on their database … they said they’ll investigate but I won’t be able to have a survey,” he said.
Cairnduff’s mother Annette Cairnduff, who is one of the founders of LGBTI rights lobby group Just Equal, married her wife Kylie Gwynne while same-sex marriage was briefly legal in the Australian Capital Territory.
Those weddings were struck down by a federal law in 2004 redefining marriage as exclusively between a man and woman. The pair plan to marry again if Australia legalises marriage equality after the postal survey.
Cairnduff said he was “incredibly frustrated” at the prospect of not being allowed to vote, adding “I just don’t understand why”.
“As a kid they used to chastise me for having gay parents, sometimes at school people are a bit rude … and it shocks me to think that those kind of people can vote on whether my mums can get married and I can’t.”
Cairnduff said he is worried that even if the ABS resolves the issue and gives him a vote that others may be in the same boat and excluded from the roll.
“I’m worried – I was on the phone [to the ABS] for an hour and a half and the only reason I’ve stuck with it is because it directly affects my mums.
“For others I can imagine it would be too much, and others would give up.”
Just Equal spokesman, Ivan Hinton-Teoh, said it was “extremely concerning that there is an unknown number of Australians who, by no fault of their own, may be disenfranchised from the survey”.
“The ABS must urgently audit their records to determine the number of people affected and resolve a way in which they can be notified and provided with a mechanism to participate,” he said.
An AEC spokesman said it was unable to discuss the enrolment status of any individual for privacy reasons.
“Persons needing to inquire further with the AEC regarding their enrolment status should contact the AEC,” he said.
Guardian Australia has contacted the ABS for comment.
