Prominent LGBTI advocates Rodney Croome, Kerryn Phelps and Ivan Hinton-Teoh have all complained that their marriage law survey forms went to the wrong addresses and have raised fears some Australians will miss out on a vote.
The trio each told Guardian Australia that their forms went to old post office boxes, despite all of them updating or checking their enrolments with the Australian Electoral Commission before the 24 August deadline.
Phelps, the former Australian Medical Association president who appeared in the first Equality Campaign ad, said she was “not calling it a conspiracy” but “indicative of some flaws in the process we always knew would be there”.
Croome, a long-time marriage equality advocate, said despite living in the same place for 26 years and checking his enrolment “just in case”, he discovered his postal survey had been sent “to a postbox I haven’t used for a decade”.
“That postal address wasn’t visible in my online AEC record and I had no idea the AEC would use it as my preferred address,” he said.
“I fear this glitch has the potential to disenfranchise many voters who may not have my very level high of motivation to participate.”
After the deadline for receiving a form to vote on same-sex marriage elapsed on Monday, eligible voters have been encouraged to check their enrolment with the AEC and apply to the Australian Bureau of Statistics for a replacement form online or by phone.
Phelps, a silent elector whose form was mailed by the AEC, discovered the error when her 18-year old daughter’s survey arrived but hers and her wife’s did not.
Phelps said she couldn’t figure out why the forms went to an old post-office box, since AEC communications had previously come to her residential address.
“We haven’t had a post box address for seven years,” she said. “If your survey form has not arrived and you want to vote yes, then check with the AEC because you should have received it.”
Hinton-Teoh, the Just Equal spokesman, said he and his partner Chris had updated their details online but their surveys went to a postbox they hadn’t used for 15 years.
“It is a clear sign that neither the electoral roll nor the update mechanisms the AEC provided were up to the task for this unprecedented and entirely unnecessary process,” he said.
“More than ever, it is clear that this survey result will reflect the motivated and persistent on both sides of this issue, considering the barriers we’ve experienced.”
Hinton-Teoh suggested the ABS should allow all Australians to use an online mechanism made available to Australians currently overseas for voting, rather than the “inefficient and unreliable postal service”.
In September the interim chief executive of Australia Post, Christine Corbett, told a Senate committee inquiry that 99% of all letters arrived on time or one day late but took on notice what proportion failed to arrive at all.
Phelps said that although about one million people had updated their details before the cut-off, her experience was indicative of many people who are “finding their surveys going to old, defunct addresses”.
Guardian Australia has received several reader complaints about forms going to old addresses, post office boxes, and in one case a commercial address registered for the Sydney local council election.
An AEC spokesman said it had provided the ABS with the electoral roll as at 24 August including voters’ residential address (the enrolled address) and “if provided by that person as part of their roll record, their postal address”.
In some cases the errors may have resulted from voters not updating both addresses, but Croome, Phelps and Hinton-Teoh all said they checked that their postal address matched their residential address. The AEC spokesman stressed it is voters’ responsibility to keep their details up to date.
Guardian Australia has also discovered enrolled Australians seeking replacement postal survey forms are being rejected by the ABS website because it cannot “verify” them due to tiny errors in the electoral roll.
Several readers who applied for replacements using the website received automated ABS responses informing them “unfortunately we have not been able to verify your details against the commonwealth electoral roll so cannot process your request at this time”.
An ABS spokesman told Guardian Australia that the online process for requesting a replacement form “looks for exact matches between a person’s electoral roll details and those provided to the ABS”.
He said if the details aren’t verified, people are told to check their details and call the information line, allowing staff to “identify minor discrepancies and support eligible Australians to obtain their survey form”.
Call centre staff ask questions such as alternative names or addresses, and if a person’s identity and enrolment is confirmed they get a replacement form.
