AEC investigates after missing ballot papers found at election worker's home
- Replies 18
Almost 2,000 ballot papers went missing on election night and were later recovered from the Sydney home of a temporary Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) worker, the ABC can reveal.
While the AEC said the incident did not affect the result in the seat of Barton because the votes had already been counted, it has not explained how the ballots ended up at the worker's home and has launched an investigation.
The AEC confirmed the worker collected a secure container holding 1,866 House of Representatives votes from a polling booth in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville after polls closed on May 3, but failed to deliver it to the commission's central counting centre.
"Ballot papers were securely packaged in the presence of scrutineers with an authorised transport officer collecting two ballot paper transport containers for delivery to a central counting centre to await further processing," an AEC spokesperson said in a statement.
"The staff member responsible erroneously returned one less container than was expected."
"The AEC's tracking processes for ballot paper transport containers identified that one of the two transport containers for the Hurstville polling place was not returned to the central counting centre on election night as it should have been," the spokesperson said.
The AEC recovered the container early last week.
"This issue relates to a single transport container that remained sealed and intact and has not affected the election," the AEC said.
"The uniquely coded security seals were not broken, and the AEC's purpose-built ballot paper transport container was intact.
"All ballot papers are accounted for.
"The AEC takes ballot paper handling extremely seriously."
Labor's Ash Ambihaipahar won the seat, beating Liberal Fiona Douskou with more than 60 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.
The AEC was not able to provide details about where in the worker's home the container was found.
"It was obtained from the individual's home where it was collected by permanent AEC staff," the spokesperson said.
"The only specific detail I have regarding the collection is that it was obtained during a conversation outside the staff member's house, following identification of the custody of the container."
The commission has launched an investigation into the matter but declined to say whether it had referred the incident to law enforcement agencies.
"Although it had no effect upon the outcome of the election in this case, it could have resulted in the election being held void in that seat if the ballots had been destroyed," Professor Twomey said.
"While concerning, this case does remind us that there are many layers of protection built into the electoral system to ensure it is secure.
"The system ensured there was accountability, although it seems likely there was some kind of failure to identify immediately that the container had not been delivered to the counting centre."
In 2013, the AEC was forced to re-run Western Australia's senate election after 1,370 ballots went missing in what a parliamentary inquiry described as the "greatest failure in the history of the Australian Electoral Commission".
Professor Twomey said the latest incident was likely to prompt a fresh inquiry into the commission's transportation of ballot papers.
"The AEC will no doubt investigate this matter thoroughly and learn from the failure," she said.
By Pat McGrath
While the AEC said the incident did not affect the result in the seat of Barton because the votes had already been counted, it has not explained how the ballots ended up at the worker's home and has launched an investigation.
The AEC confirmed the worker collected a secure container holding 1,866 House of Representatives votes from a polling booth in the Sydney suburb of Hurstville after polls closed on May 3, but failed to deliver it to the commission's central counting centre.
"Ballot papers were securely packaged in the presence of scrutineers with an authorised transport officer collecting two ballot paper transport containers for delivery to a central counting centre to await further processing," an AEC spokesperson said in a statement.
"The staff member responsible erroneously returned one less container than was expected."
The AEC said the worker failed to deliver one container of ballots to a central counting centre. (ABC News: James Dunlevie, file photo)
Error detected
Officials at the AEC only noticed the container was missing when they began a routine recount of votes in the electorate last week."The AEC's tracking processes for ballot paper transport containers identified that one of the two transport containers for the Hurstville polling place was not returned to the central counting centre on election night as it should have been," the spokesperson said.
The AEC recovered the container early last week.
"This issue relates to a single transport container that remained sealed and intact and has not affected the election," the AEC said.
"The uniquely coded security seals were not broken, and the AEC's purpose-built ballot paper transport container was intact.
"All ballot papers are accounted for.
"The AEC takes ballot paper handling extremely seriously."
Labor's Ash Ambihaipahar won the seat, beating Liberal Fiona Douskou with more than 60 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.
The AEC was not able to provide details about where in the worker's home the container was found.
"The only specific detail I have regarding the collection is that it was obtained during a conversation outside the staff member's house, following identification of the custody of the container."
The commission has launched an investigation into the matter but declined to say whether it had referred the incident to law enforcement agencies.
Potential impact
University of Sydney electoral law expert Anne Twomey described the incident as a "serious matter"."Although it had no effect upon the outcome of the election in this case, it could have resulted in the election being held void in that seat if the ballots had been destroyed," Professor Twomey said.
Anne Twomey says the AEC is likely to learn from the episode. (ABC News: David Sciasci, file photo)
"While concerning, this case does remind us that there are many layers of protection built into the electoral system to ensure it is secure.
"The system ensured there was accountability, although it seems likely there was some kind of failure to identify immediately that the container had not been delivered to the counting centre."
In 2013, the AEC was forced to re-run Western Australia's senate election after 1,370 ballots went missing in what a parliamentary inquiry described as the "greatest failure in the history of the Australian Electoral Commission".
Professor Twomey said the latest incident was likely to prompt a fresh inquiry into the commission's transportation of ballot papers.
"The AEC will no doubt investigate this matter thoroughly and learn from the failure," she said.
By Pat McGrath
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