First we had Western Australia heading back to the polls over the Australian Electoral Commission’s (AEC’s) more than 1,300 votes that went missing during a recount of WA Senate ballots.
Then there was the AEC’s next blunder of the missing 1,003 votes that were cast in the House of Representatives and Senate in the seat of Indi in Victoria.
Today, 4 December 2013, I received a letter from the AEC dated 29 November 2013 headed ‘Apparent failure to vote’.
This letter states, ‘I am writing to you as, according to my records, it appears that you failed to vote at the federal election held on 7 September 2013’.
I was one of the first dozen voters to vote at Ballina High School at 8 o’clock in the morning on 7 September 2013.
It then goes on to say, ‘If you did vote, please provide details on the form on the back of this notice so that voting records can be rechecked, and corrected if necessary’.
This letter was signed L Thurgood, Divisional Returning Officer.
Firstly I’m told that I didn’t vote, then I’m told if I did vote…
By this letter I am assuming that my vote did not count in the last election. I am now wondering how many other voters have received these letters and how many other votes have not been counted because of the AEC’s blunder.
Is this how the Liberal coalition government came into power?
Greg Denford, East Ballina.
Dear Greg,
I live in Murwillumbah. I applied for a postal voting form to be sent to me in Sydney as I was to be there on voting day. I received the form two days prior to the election, immediately completed it, got it witnessed and mailed it into a mailbox on cr Dover Road and New South Head Road, Rose Bay, on 31 st August. This was a week before the election which was held on 7th September!
Imagine my surprise when, on 25 November I received a notification from the Australian Electoral Commission that my vote was deemed informal because it had been received after the 2nd Friday after the election!
I phoned the Commission and spoke to Sue who found my document, perused it and assured me that my ballot form was signed on 31st August. She said that there was nothing I could do about it
So HOW did my ballot form take THREE WEEKS or more to reach the Commission? It must have been held up somewhere? I wonder how the current government got into power. There urgently needs to be a review into the vote receiving and counting system. Something’s very wrong!
Sincerely
Denise Callichy
I had to absentee vote at the last election, a few weeks later I received a letter stating that they couldn’t find me on the electoral role and so my vote didn’t count.
A week ago I received a letter for Jury Duty, the letter said that I had been ‘randomly selected from the electoral role’ to attend Jury Duty.
…How could I be found for Jury Duty but not by the AEC to count my vote?!
Slack.