The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is looking into how nearly 2,000 ballot papers from the federal election went missing in the NSW seat of Barton — and later turned up at a temporary electoral worker’s home.
Officials clarified this didn’t affect the result in the seat of Barton, as the votes had already been counted. Labor’s Ash Ambihaipahar won the seat, beating Liberal candidate Fiona Douskou with more than 60 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.
But, the AEC admitted this kind of incident “shouldn’t have occurred” and says it will be reviewing procedures to see what improvements can be made for future elections.
After polls closed on May 3, a secure container holding 1,866 House of Representatives votes from a polling booth in Hurstville (a suburb of Sydney) was collected by an electoral worker, it explained. But the container didn’t make it to the central counting centre.
The ballot papers had been securely packed with scrutineers present, and a transport officer was responsible for collecting seven containers from the polling place — two for the House of Representatives and five for the Senate.
Last week, when officials began a routine recount of votes in the electorate, they realised one container was missing.
The AEC said around 90,000 ballot paper transport containers are used during Australia’s elections. (Source: Getty)
“The AEC’s tracking processes for ballot paper transport containers identified that one of the two House of Representatives containers for the Hurstville polling place was not returned to the central counting centre it should have been. All other six transport containers for the polling place were accounted for,” it said in a statement.
After making inquiries, it found the worker had inadvertently retained the single missing container. It was recovered from their home fully intact, with all uniquely coded security seals unbroken, and without any damage.
“All ballot papers were still in the recovered ballot paper transport container and were promptly returned to the counting centre and have undergone fresh scrutiny. The fresh scrutiny count matched the initial count and the election in the Division of Barton was unaffected by this incident,” the AEC said.
The AEC determined this “did not appear to be a deliberate act”, although they said they had experienced some challenges in communicating with the worker.
“We are of the view, with evidence available to us at this time, that the transport officer inadvertently overlooked the return of the transport container and was indifferent to the implications and our serious concerns. This does not appear to be a deliberate act,” it said.
Around 90,000 ballot paper transport containers are used during Australia’s elections, with around 100,000 people employed on election day for around 7,000 different voting venues.
The AEC explained “select staff” are required and authorised to possess, or transport, the ballot papers.
“There are documented processes, training and planning. In [this] single instance, out of thousands all around Australia, the return of these materials didn’t occur in accordance with these processes,” it said.
The AEC acknowledged their manual processes “inherently rely on people” and “occasionally people make mistakes or don’t exercise the best judgment, particularly when under pressure”. It stressed their systems ultimately identified and resolved the issue.
“The AEC takes ballot paper handling extremely seriously and deeply regrets this incident,” it said.
Lead image: Getty
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