On polling night, all votes were counted in the Hurstville polling place (Division of Barton) in the presence of candidate-appointed scrutineers with all results reported onto the AEC’s tally room in real time. As per normal practice in all 7000 polling places, the ballot papers were securely packaged in the presence of scrutineers with an AEC transport officer collecting seven ballot paper transport containers (five Senate and two House of Representatives) from the Officer in Charge of the polling place for delivery to a materials return hub and then on to our Out-posted Centre (counting centre) to await further processing.
In the days following polling night, the AEC undertakes fresh scrutiny (the mandatory second count of all House of Representative ballot papers) – which begins on the Tuesday. When AEC staff got to the point of conducting fresh scrutiny for the Hurstville polling place, they were initially unable to proceed. 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.
The AEC exhausted numerous avenues of inquiry, ascertaining that the authorised transport officer inadvertently maintained possession of the single missing container. It was recovered from the transport officer 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.
This shouldn’t have occurred, and the AEC is deeply concerned that on this single occasion our process did not prevent the issue on polling night when ballot papers were initially returned. However, the further layers of ballot paper tracking processes in place for many elections did ultimately identify the issue and help rectify the situation. Nonetheless, work is already underway to further investigate this incident to understand what, if any, elements of the return of materials process need to be changed for future elections.
While respecting the privacy of the individual concerned the AEC did experience a number of challenges in communicating with this person as we explored all possible avenues of inquiry. 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.
The ballot paper transport process
Australia’s elections are manual and require the authorised transport of ballot papers by AEC staff. This includes the use of 90,000 ballot paper transport containers and approximately 100,000 staff employed on election day for around 7,000 different voting venues. Select AEC staff are required and authorised to take possession of, and transport, ballot papers (all of which is tracked).
There are documented processes, training and planning. In the single instance outlined above, out of thousands all around Australia, the return of these materials didn’t occur in accordance with these processes. The receipt of materials process at the central AEC facility should have ensured all transport containers from the Hurstville polling place were received at the central facility on polling night. Fortunately, this only resulted in a near miss as the AEC’s further processes for tracking and securing of transport containers identified the issue and led to the recovery of the secure material.
The AEC’s manual processes inherently rely on people and occasionally people make mistakes or don’t exercise the best judgment, particularly when under pressure. AEC systems and processes ultimately identified and resolved the issue, as they should.
The AEC takes ballot paper handling extremely seriously and deeply regrets this incident.
