Australia: New vote for Western Australia as court voids razor-sharp contest | Reuters

Voters in Western Australia are headed for a rerun of last year’s federal Senate race, after the High Court on Thursday voided the election over 1,370 ballots that disappeared during a recount of the tight contest. The ruling could have an impact on conservative Prime Minister Tony Abbott’s agenda. His Liberal-National coalition won a strong majority in the lower house of parliament in last year’s poll, but lacks a majority in the upper house, or Senate. Justice Kenneth Hayne invalidated the race because the lost ballots far exceeded the margins of error in two of the senate races, one of which came down to as few as 12 votes. Senator Michael Ronaldson, the Liberal Party minister responsible for the Australian Electoral Commission, warned the agency over a replay of the debacle in the new vote, which could take place within weeks.

Australia: Fresh Senate poll likely in Western Australia | Perth Now

West Australians could go back to the polls as early as March after the High Court could not declare who was elected to the Senate because of lost votes. The Australian Electoral Commission petitioned the court for the election to be declared void, after it lost 1375 votes during a recount for the September 2013 election. The initial count declared the Liberals and Labor winners of the first four of six seats. The final two seats went to Zhenya Dio Wang of the Palmer United Party and Labor Senator Louise Pratt. But the recount narrowly gave the final two seats to the Australian Sports Party’s Wayne Dropulich and the Greens’ Senator Scott Ludlam.

Australia: High Court Judge indicates Western Australia likely to go back to polls for fresh Senate election | ABC

The Court of Disputed Returns has given a strong indication that Western Australia will go back to the polls for a new Senate election. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) asked for the Senate election to be declared void after 1,370 ballot papers were missing for a recount. Justice Kenneth Hayne has ruled that the loss of those ballot papers meant the electors were prevented from voting. He also ruled that Greens senator Scott Ludlam and the Australian Sports Party’s Wayne Dropulich were not duly elected.

Australia: Court to decide on Western Australia Senate election fate | Sydney Morning Herald

Voters in Western Australia will find out on Tuesday whether they will go to a fresh Senate election which could determine the fate of the Abbott government’s agenda. High Court justice Kenneth Hayne will decide on a petition brought by the Australian Electoral Commission to have the election of six WA senators in 2013 declared void. The AEC lost 1370 votes in a recount of the WA Senate election. An independent inquiry by former police chief Mick Keelty was inconclusive about the fate of the ballot papers, but called for a major overhaul of the AEC’s processes. Three Liberals and one Labor candidate were declared winners of the first four of six seats.

Australia: Auditor says Electoral Commission was warned of problems | SBS News

The commonwealth auditor-general says the Australian Electoral Commission was warned at least four years ago about problems with its vote counting system. A Senate committee is sitting in Canberra on Thursday to take evidence in relation to the AEC’s botched running of the West Australian Senate election in 2013. The commission is seeking a court-ordered fresh election after the mysterious loss of 1370 ballot papers, for which it has apologised.

Australia: Court to rule on Western Australia Senate election | Perth Now

The voters of Western Australia will on Monday learn if they are to return to the polls for a second Senate election. Justice Kenneth Hayne is deliberating on submissions from candidates with the highest number of votes in the first count of WA’s Senate ballot, the senators elected in the recount and the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC). Each is vying for a different outcome. The AEC is calling for the entire Senate election to be declared void and held again. One of its arguments is that 1370 voters whose ballots were lost in between the initial scrutiny and a recount – that was requested, rejected, then granted upon appeal – have been denied the chance to vote. Andrew Bell, acting for the AEC – which itself lost the ballots – said on Thursday the availability of the ballot papers was “essential” in a recount. “The 1370 were prevented from voting because their votes were not counted or capable of being counted in the count that mattered,” Mr Bell told the Court of Disputed Returns during the two-day hearing.

Australia: Court of Disputed Returns to examine poll validity after ballot papers lost | ABC News

The fate of the Western Australian Senate election will hang in the balance today when the Court of Disputed Returns sits in Melbourne. The court has been asked by the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to find the poll void, so it can mount a rerun. The case comes after the embarrassment to the AEC over the loss of 1,370 ballot papers after last year’s September election. The votes were discovered to be missing when a recount was ordered, after a challenge by two of the candidates, the Green’s Scott Ludlam and the Sporting Party’s Wayne Dropulich. The dispute is over the fifth and sixth Senate positions.

Australia: Challenge to Western Australia Senate result on hold until January | The Australian

Australia’s new Senate could sit before legal challenges to the election result in Western Australia are determined, a High Court justice says. The High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, is hearing three separate petitions about the result of the fifth and sixth Senate places in Western Australia. But Senate contenders will be left to sweat through summer after Justice Kenneth Hayne today flagged the challenge to the upper house result in WA would not be heard until late January. And the matter may not be settled before the new Senate commences sitting in July. “I cannot dismiss the possibility that … after the first of July the Senate may not be properly constituted,” he said. “That possibility is best avoided.” The result in WA has already been the subject of a recount and an investigation by former Australian Federal Police chief Mick Keelty, after 1370 votes went missing.

Australia: Close watch on Senate re-run | The West Australian

The likely repeat WA Senate election next year will be one of the most high-tech and high- security exercises in democracy in the Western world. Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said the Australian Electoral Commission would implement all 32 of Mick Keelty’s recommendations after the bungled WA count that resulted in 1370 ballot papers going missing. “I’ve accepted, the commission’s accepted, all of the recommendations,” Mr Killesteyn told ABC radio yesterday. “Bear in mind, this will take us to the forefront of control. No other electoral commission, certainly in Australia or indeed many parts of the Western world, has these sorts of controls over ballot papers.” Mr Keelty, a former Australian Federal Police commissioner, recommended the AEC introduce “cradle to grave” handling of ballot papers to keep them sterile at all times by ensuring secure warehousing with CCTV, alarms and guards whose political neutrality had been checked. Ballot papers are likely to be routinely scanned electronically and the AEC will use tamper- evident materials during transfer and storage.

Australia: Missing Senate votes: Mick Keelty says lax WA standards to blame for lost ballots | ABC

An inquiry into Western Australia’s missing Senate votes has found significant failures in the handling, movement and storage of ballot papers. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) asked the former commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Mick Keelty, to conduct the inquiry after more than 1,300 ballot papers disappeared. The bungle has left the Senate result up the air, with the AEC asking the High Court to order a fresh election in the New Year.

Australia: Lost votes box could cost taxpayers $13m | The West Australian

A lost box of ballot papers worth just $30 will likely condemn taxpayers to a $13 million election, according to a scathing review of the WA Senate recount. Former Federal police commissioner Mick Keelty accused the WA office of the Australian Electoral Commission of having a culture of complacency that is likely to result in 1.3 million people going back to the polls next year. Mr Keelty was given the task of determining how the commission lost 1370 votes after it was asked to conduct a recount. The probe came after a very close Senate count in WA which, depending on the lost votes, could have two different candidates elected to the Upper House for the next six years. There has been an appeal in the High Court against the result, with a directions hearing to be held next week. Mr Keelty found he could not “conclusively” rule out foul play in the recount, though he suggested the votes could have been placed in wrong boxes, lost in transit or accidentally destroyed. He found the electoral commission was under more pressure, with a bigger workload, demographic changes and increased expectations for results on election night. This had led to mistakes that cumulatively could cost taxpayers millions of dollars.

Australia: Negligent AEC practices means mystery of lost votes will remain unsolved: Mick Keelty | Brisbane Times

Former federal police commissioner Mick Keelty has criticised “lax” and “complacent” practices with the Australian Electoral Commission in concluding the fate of 1370 missing Western Australian Senate votes may never be known. The Australian Electoral Commission asked Mr Keelty to investigate what happened to the ballot papers after the loss of the votes was discovered in October during a recount. In a report released on Friday, Mr Keelty said while his investigation had not excluded the possibility of criminality, he had not discovered any evidence to suggest it was more likely than that the ballot papers had simply been misplaced. “It is tempting to say that the ballots are most likely to have been mistakenly destroyed with recycling material but the system put in place by the WA AEC office was so parlous that such a conclusion would be difficult to prove,” Mr Keelty wrote.

Australia: New Senate election looms after AEC seeks an order that poll be declared void | The Australian

Electoral officials have applied to the High Court for a re-run of the West Australian Senate election, following the loss of 1370 ballot papers. Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn today lodged a petition with the High Court, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, to declare all six Senate places void following the loss of the ballot papers during a controversial recount. The petition comes before the conclusion of the investigation into the missing ballot papers by former Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty. “Given the closeness of the margins that favoured the final two declared candidates, the petition is based on the premise that the inability to include 1370 missing ballot papers in the recount of the WA Senate election means that the election was likely to be affected for the purposes of s 362(3) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918,” the Australian Electoral Commission said in a statement.

Australia: Missing Senate ballot papers may never be found, investigator says | theguardian.com

Former police commissioner Mick Keelty says the whereabouts of the missing 1,375 votes from the disputed West Australian Senate election may remain a mystery. Keelty, who has been called in by the Australian Electoral Commission to investigate the loss of ballot papers in the 2013 Western Australia Senate election, told reporters in Perth on Monday: “We may never get to the bottom of this. Nearly six weeks down the track and there is no indication of where these ballots are.” The contested senate election result in Western Australia is now bound for the high court, and the AEC has left open the prospect of petitioning the court itself in a gesture to restore faith in the electoral process. The court has several options, including ordering a fresh election.

Australia: Antony Green says Western Australia Senate result comes down to just one vote | ABC

ABC election analyst Antony Green says the outcome of the Senate vote in Western Australia would have come down to a solitary vote. The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) today released the party-by-party tally of votes counted in the days after the election. Earlier this week the AEC declared the results of the poll despite admitting that it had misplaced 1,375 ballot papers in the recount. The tally sheets released today include the lost votes. Green says if the missing votes were to be included in the recount, the Palmer United Party (PUP) and Labor would have won the final two Senate spots and not the Greens and the Australian Sports Party. “If these votes could be included in the count, then they would produce the closest Senate election result in Australian history with a gap of just a single vote determining the final two Senate seats,” Green wrote in his election blog.

Australia: Electoral Commission won’t release vote-counting code | The Register

Following the shambolic Western Australian Senate election, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) has turned down a citizen’s FOI request to look at the software it uses to count Senate votes. The decision, published yesterday at RightToKnow.org.au, was in response to a request made by Michael Cordover. Cordover had asked for the source code of the software, along with scripts and interpreted code; along the data specifications the AEC used in writing the software.

Australia: Missing votes a rare event in Australian Electoral Commission history | Sydney Morning Herald

This year’s election hasn’t been a great one for the Australian Electoral Commission. First, there were reports of ”missing” ballots in the seat of Indi. Then Clive Palmer has remained a vocal critic and made frequent attacks questioning the AEC’s integrity. Finally, last week came the revelation that 1375 votes have gone missing from the West Australian Senate recount. The first two events are less substantive. In the case of Indi, the ”missing” ballots were never missing. There was a transcription error that made it appear the ballots were missing when they never were. In the case of Palmer, the rhetoric about the AEC ”rigging” elections is unsubstantiated and so contrary to what we know about the AEC and how it operates, that I don’t know of a single political scientist or an official or politician from either major party who supports that allegation. And the major parties have long histories of witnessing how the AEC and its predecessors operate.

Australia: Australian Electoral Commission apologises for lost senate votes | ABC

The Australian Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn, in his first interview since the AEC lost 1375 ballot papers in the Western Australian senate recount, has admitted that the public’s confidence in the AEC has been damaged as a result of the debacle. Speaking with RN’s Breakfast, Mr Killesteyn said that the ‘gravity of the situation’ had not been lost on him. ‘Nearly 1400 Western Australian electors have had their Senate vote disenfranchised and I apologise unreservedly to all those electors,’ he said. ‘We’re left with a nagging and almost irreconcilable doubt about the outcome of the WA Senate election.’ Mr Killestyn added that a shift to electronic voting, where a vote is registered straight away and can’t be tampered with, was ‘inevitable.’

Australia: West Australian voters likely to be forced back to the polls after AEC admits ineptitude in Senate ballot | Telegraph

The Australian Electoral Commission has admitted its incompetence will send almost 2.5 million voters back to the polls. Despite yesterday declaring six politcal “winners” amid farcical scenes in the Western Australia Senate race, the AEC hinted it would challenge its own result after losing 1400 votes. The challenge would likely trigger a fresh poll. Australian Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn apologised for the lost ballot papers, conceding it was likely they had been lost forever, and hinted he would petition for a fresh election. “I’m obligated to declare the result, irrespective of the fact that these ballots are missing. Legally, I just have no other choice,” he said. “Nearly 1400 West Australian electors have had their Senate votes disenfranchised and I apologise unreservedly to all of those electors,” Mr Killesteyn told ABC Radio before the result was handed down.

Australia: Time to kill paper ballots? First, let’s look at the alternatives | The Conversation

The Australian Electoral Commission’s (AEC) loss of 1,375 ballot papers for the West Australian Senate count was an unfortunate failure from an agency that already faced growing public pressure to do away with paper and pencil voting. Even before the ballots disappeared, newly minted MP Clive Palmer was loudly calling for the introduction of US-style electronic voting machines. Meanwhile, an experiment with internet voting for people with disabilities in New South Wales in 2011 caused many to question why we all can’t vote from home. But before we pulp the paper ballots, it’s worth considering what — if anything — is actually wrong with the system as it stands, as well as what the pros and cons of the alternatives may be. Australia’s current procedures for recording and counting votes have essentially remained unchanged since federation. Voters are given a piece of paper and a pencil with which to record their voting preference, and the completed ballot papers are then placed in a sealed box.

Australia: Mick Keelty to lead inquiry into 1375 missing ballots | theguardian.com

The electoral commission has been forced to call in the services of respected former federal police commissioner Mick Keelty for an investigation after 1375 Senate ballots vanished during a critical Western Australian recount. The missing ballots are a substantial reputational embarrassment for the Australian Electoral Commission, raise serious questions over the integrity of the electoral system, and could ultimately trigger a re-run of the WA Senate election. The special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, has issued a strong public rebuke to the AEC.

Australia: Western Australia Senate recount in turmoil as 1375 votes go missing | Sydney Morning Herald

An inquiry has been called and a byelection for the entire state of Western Australia could be on the cards after the Australian Electoral Commission revealed 1375 ballot papers are missing from the WA Senate recount. Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn has apologised for the missing papers, which he said could not be found despite “exhaustive efforts” to locate them. Former Australian Federal Police commissioner Mick Keelty has been called in to conduct an independent inquiry. Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson has moved quickly to criticise the AEC for the missing papers. “I have personally expressed to the Electoral Commissioner my strong view that this situation is totally unsatisfactory and that I, as the responsible Minister, view this matter very dimly,” Senator Ronaldson said.

Australia: Voters in Australian state could go back to polls after almost 1,400 Senate ballots lost | ABC

Almost 1,400 Senate ballots cast at September federal elections are missing, and voters may have to return to the polls soon for two seats that have ramifications for the conservative government’s ability to pass its legislative agenda. The Australian Electoral Commission is set to declare the Senate vote as early as Monday next week despite the missing votes. Disgruntled candidates can then appeal to the High Court, which can order a new Senate election in Western Australia state. AEC spokesman Phil Diak said it was unlikely the ballots would ever be found. “The AEC has been searching exhaustively and that includes all premises where the Senate votes were stored,” Diak told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio on Friday. The missing ballots account for only one in 1,000 in a state where 1.3 million people voted at the last election.

Australia: The tech behind Western Australia’s senate recount | iTnews.com.au

For more than 95 percent of Australians, the daunting task of voting below the line in a federal senate election is too much to ask, especially for a Saturday morning. So it will come as no surprise that during the upcoming WA senate recount, as with every senate tally since 2001, the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) will call upon some electronic assistance to calculate the complex system of preferences and trickle-down the redistributions that decide the seating pattern in the nation’s upper house. While Greens communications spokesman Scott Ludlam waits to hear whether he has won back his seat, electoral officials will be feeding ballot data into a limited network of computers running its EasyCount tally system. “The system takes the entered information for each of the votes cast in a Senate election, performs the distribution of preferences, and indicates which candidates have been elected,” an AEC spokesman explained to iTnews.

Australia: Western Australia Senate recount gets under way | WA Today

The first ever Senate recount since the advent of preferential Senate voting has begun in Perth. The Australian Electoral Commission is recounting WA’s 1.25 million above-the-line votes, after the Greens and the Australian Sports Party were successful in their bid to have the nailbiting result reviewed. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam and the Sports Party’s Wayne Dropulich lost the election to the Palmer United Party’s Zhenya ‘Dio’ Wang and Labor’s Louise Pratt, who took the fifth and sixth available Senate spots. But the result hinged on a crucial 14-vote margin at one stage of the count, when the Shooters and Fishers Party edged out the Australian Christians, meaning preferences ultimately flowed to the PUP and Labor.

Australia: Palmer claims Electoral Commission ‘rigging’ recount | Brisbane Times

Clive Palmer believes the Australian Electoral Commission will “rig” the Fairfax recount and deliver victory to his LNP opponent. Mr Palmer says he’s odds on to lose the contest with the LNP’s Ted O’Brien, despite finishing ahead in two previous counts. “I think in the end Ted O’Brien will win because the AEC will put him there,” Mr Palmer said on Friday. “I’ve said that while I’ve been leading all along because the system is very corrupt. Mr Palmer originally finished with 36 more votes than Mr O’Brien. His lead was whittled down to a mere seven votes after a full redistribution of preferences. The AEC is now conducting a full recount which isn’t likely to wind-up for at least another week.

Australia: Senate recount ordered in Western Australia | The Australian

The Australian Electoral Commission has ordered a recount in the desperately tight Senate race in Western Australia. The recount of more than a million votes follows an appeal by Greens senator Scott Ludlam, who lost his Senate seat in the initial count, and the Australian Sports Party’s Wayne Dropulich. An earlier request for a partial recount was refused. WA Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn said he had now decided to agree to a recount of WA Senate ballot papers where electors had marked their ballots above the line. This would involve over 96 per cent of votes, or approximately 1.25 million of the 1.3 million formal votes. The recount will also re-examine informal votes. Mr Killesteyn said the closeness of the count was not in itself the basis for a recount.

Australia: Greens Senator Scott Ludlam appeals WA Senate recount refusal | Sydney Morning Herald

Ousted Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has not given up hope of winning back his West Australian seat, confirming he has appealed the Australian Electoral Commission’s decision to refuse his requests for a recount. “I think there’s a question of natural justice here,” Senator Ludlam told ABC radio on Friday. “The AEC should automatically support a recount as they do in the House [when fewer than 100 votes separate candidates].” On Friday morning, the AEC decided to postpone the declaration of the WA Senate poll until further notice, in light of Senator Ludlam’s appeal. The declaration had been due to take place at 1.30pm AEST on Friday. A senate result recount, which hasn’t occurred since the 1980 federal election, is estimated to cost $1 million.

Australia: Clive Palmer three votes ahead as Australian Electoral Commission recounts votes | ABC News

Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer leads the LNP’s Ted O’Brien by just three votes in the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax. A recount of preferences is underway after an initial count put Mr Palmer 36 votes ahead of Mr O’Brien. On Monday morning Mr Palmer was 42 votes ahead, but by the evening the mining magnate’s lead had narrowed to three votes. As the painstaking count continues, tensions are rising. Last week the Australian Electoral Commission flew in its chief legal officer to deal with an unusually high number of challenges on the validity of ballot papers. The Palmer United Party, which may also hold the balance of power in the Senate, has four lawyers and the LNP has one. Palmer’s scrutineers are being delivered gourmet lunches from the billionaire’s luxury Coolum resort, while Mr O’Brien’s team gets the rare sandwich or roll.

Australia: Electoral chief cautious about online voting | Sydney Morning Herald

The replacement of paper-and-pencil voting with an electronic system could see Australians lose confidence in the poll results, the electoral chief has warned. Australian Electoral Commissioner Ed Killesteyn defended the system’s reliability following attacks from election hopeful Clive Palmer, who portrayed himself as a victim of ”rigged” results and the AEC as a military-infiltrated ”national disgrace”. Despite the conspiracy claims, Mr Palmer extended his lead over his Liberal National Party rival to 111 votes on Friday, with the final counting of outstanding votes in the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax expected on Saturday. The Palmer United Party founder and wealthy Queensland businessman reacted angrily to the discovery of 750 votes tallied against the wrong pre-poll location mid-way through the count. In an earlier mistake, officials noticed 1000 votes for Victorian independent Cathy McGowan had not been recorded correctly, pushing the seat of Indi further out of reach of former Coalition frontbencher Sophie Mirabella, who subsequently conceded defeat this week. Mr Killesteyn said computer-based voting would eliminate these kinds of ”human errors” but the benefits would have to be weighed against hacking and manipulation fears.