The New South Wales electoral commissioner has rejected claims that two of his staff exchanged emails allegedly referring to errors in the count of votes for Upper House candidate Pauline Hanson. Ms Hanson is challenging the election result which saw her miss out on an Upper House seat.
She has launched action in the Court of Disputed Returns, after being told that staff at the commission had mistakenly put around 1,200 votes for her in a pile of blank ballots. Ms Hanson says she was tipped off by an Electoral Commission worker that her ballots were sabotaged.
She claims to have been forwarded an email, allegedly written by chief information officer Ian Brightwell and sent to communications manager Richard Carroll, which mentions the issue.
But electoral commissioner Colin Barry says nothing has been shown to him suggesting the allegation has any substance and he has total confidence in the two men.
Full Article: Commissioner rejects Hanson voting error claims – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).