[redcarpet]

AEC unsure who won two WA Senate spots

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) wants part of the federal election declared void because it can't be certain who would have won the final two Senate places in Western Australia.

In a petition lodged in the High Court on Friday, AEC commissioner Ed Killesteyn said the loss of 1370 votes from WA means it is not possible to conclude which of the state's Senate candidates should go to Canberra.

'The court should be satisfied that the result of the election was likely to be affected and that it is just that the election (of WA senators) should be declared void,' he said.

In the September 7 poll, WA voters had to select six senators, with Liberal David Johnston, Labor's Joe Bullock and Liberals Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds elected in the first four places.

In the initial count, the last two places went to Zhenya Wang of the Palmer United Party and Labor's Louise Pratt.

But because of the close result, Wayne Dropulich of the Australian Sports Party and the Greens Scott Ludlam requested a recount.

It then emerged that 1370 ballot papers, comprising 120 informal votes and 1250 above-the-line votes, were missing.

On the recount without the missing votes, Mr Dropulich and Senator Ludlam were elected.

But the AEC petition said that in a notional recount, without the missing votes but based on records, the final two places were decided by a single vote that would have sent Mr Wang and Ms Pratt to Canberra.

Mr Killesteyn said there were a number of contraventions of the Electoral Act by WA electoral officials including failing to properly conduct the recount and failing to maintain safe custody of ballot papers.

'If the 1370 missing ballot papers had been available for the recount, it was likely in the sense of there being a real chance, that the result of the election would have been different,' he said.

The High Court can take the matter no further until the December 16 expiry of the 40-day time period from return of the election writs.

It's likely the case won't be heard until next year.

SkyNews

Yes ladies & gentlemen; it's happening again!

[GandalfTheGrey]

The real joke is that in 2013 the AEC is still carting around hundreds of thousands of paper ballots in the back of vans and storing them in warehouses, and then counting them by hand.

What a farce. In a world where every other conceivable thing is electronic and computerised, the AEC is stuck in the dark ages.

Lets get one thing straight too - this case is only the case we know about because its one of the few times a senate recount has been ordered. Who knows how many ballots have gone missing in all the other elections? We'll never know.

[redcarpet]

Um, we can know. I heard on ABC news radio a few days ago
that the AEC stores ballots, etc, from previous elections.

[pugsville]

I dont know about computerization, I just dont trust voting machines and their ilk. Worked with computers most of my life. Just makes it very easy for very dubious practices. Lose electronic votes they are lost at least physical votes can be rechecked. Yeah I know you could do all sorts of things for valdidtion of the system,but large computer systems often fail (there is a lot of crude code, big projects seem to attract it) and big government comuter system more so.

[AVT]

It is a blessing in disguise for conservatives, it is likely that the turnout for another senate election in WA will deter young voters from casting a ballot again and so the older and more conservative voters will gain an edge. I would very much like to see the Greens lose their seat, Scott is an insufferable ideologue.