Australian Electoral Commission launches investigation into ballot papers

Following the discovery of several ballot papers close to a trash can inside a hotel room, the Australian Electoral Commission opened an investigation.

They claim that half of the ballots discovered in a hotel room near a trash can were forgeries and the other half were purposefully not cast by voters.

On the north coast of New South Wales, at Port Macquarie, thirteen ballot papers were discovered in an envelope in a hotel room.

Twelve of the papers were for the Central Coast district of Paterson, and one was for the southern Sydney district of Banks.

Inside the packet, there were also photocopies of further paperwork.

Half of the ballot papers found near a bin in a hotel room were fake and the other half deliberately not cast by voters, the Australian Electoral Commission has claimedA listener who was concerned that they might have been unintentionally lost or withheld from the May 21 federal election handed the papers into 2GB.

The AEC gathered the papers for investigation, and according to a representative for the agency, half of them seemed to be fraudulent.

According to a spokeswoman, “They appear to be photocopies made on the incorrect shade of green ballot paper and without a number of the AEC’s security marks in place.”

This was probably done to elicit unhelpful media inquiries that would lead to erroneous perceptions among the public.

The other half were legitimate papers that voters deliberately chose not to place in the ballot boxes.

‘It appears likely that a very small group of people attempting to seed conspiracy through the mainstream media have chosen to walk out with their ballot in order to send an image on to a media outlet, like they have done with 2GB, in the hope that it would be reported before being verified,’ the spokesperson said.

The papers were collected by the AEC for investigation with a spokesperson telling Daily Mail Australia half of them appeared to be fakeEvery election, there are voters who receive ballots but decide not to cast them for a variety of reasons.

The spokeswoman claimed that in order to guarantee that every ballot was correctly counted during elections, the AEC had tight procedures in place.

According to the spokesperson, “Any ballot paper that is placed in an AEC ballot box is then protected by a chain of custody that begins with barcoded/tracked cable ties and ballot box guards through to security-protected AEC counting centres with supervision and scrutineers in place throughout the counting process.”