Postal vote ‘tampering’ referred to Police and VCAT

The Victorian Electoral Commission (VEC) has today announced it will apply to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) for a review of the results of Whittlesea City Council’s Lalor Ward and Knox City Council’s Baird Ward elections over suspected postal vote tampering.

The VEC says it detected higher rates of multiple ballot paper envelopes returned appearing to be from the same voters in both these wards following the close of voting. 

As required by law, the voter declarations on each multiple return were carefully examined, the Commission said.

“A number of multiple returns were set aside as rejected after comparison with the declarations from replacement ballot paper envelopes. This highlighted a pattern of irregularities,” a VEC statement reads.

Electoral Commissioner, Sven Bluemmel, expressed his disappointment that it appeared election interference had occurred – but assured voters that additional safeguarding measures implemented for this year’s elections had identified the irregularities.

“Interfering with an election is a serious matter with significant penalties,” Mr Bluemmel said.

“Electoral integrity is paramount, and it must be upheld to maintain the community’s trust in their elections.

“In addition to today’s VCAT applications we referred the matters to Victoria Police and the Local Government Inspectorate (LGI) for investigation of electoral offences under the Local Government Act.

“Following a similar incident detected in the 2020 local council elections, we implemented further safeguards and monitoring tools for the 2024 postal elections,” he said.

The VEC was required by law to declare the election result for both wards before referrals to VCAT could occur.

The Chief Municipal Inspector, Michael Stefanovic AM, said the LGI was working closely with the VEC to establish the nature and extent of these matters and will liaise with Victoria Police as to the appropriate level of investigative response. 

“On initial review, the matters that have been referred to the LGI, concern potential offences of tampering or interfering with ballot papers that are 2 of the more serious offences under the Local Government Act 2020 – each carrying a substantial fine or imprisonment for up to 5 years,” he said.