NT Electoral Commissioner Kirsten Kelly says she became aware of allegations about how to vote material being doctored on election day and has asked the candidate to provide a complaint with evidence in writing, warning if an offence has been committed the max penalty is around $19,000

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now we've spoken about some of the questionable tactics and

(00:02):
the outright poor behavior that was seen during the local
council elections. Then yesterday I was sent images of how
to vote leaflets which had been changed to favor a
mayoral candidate who was not meant to sit as that
person's preferred preference. It's pretty dodgy stuff. Now joining me
on the line is the Northern Territory Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly.

(00:25):
Good morning to you, Commissioner.

Speaker 2 (00:27):
Good morning Katie, Commissioner.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
Has that incident been reported to you? Somebody doctoring those
how to vote leaflets?

Speaker 2 (00:35):
So the Anti Electric Commission was made aware of the
matter regarding how to vote materials unofficially by candidate on
election day. So the advice provided to that candidate was
to submit in writing the details to the intext so
we could review that and that's consistent with the our
feedback and complaints process. So yesterday we had an informal
discussion with the candidate and again we've just asked for

(00:57):
the details to be put in writing because complaints there's
a requirement to establish the facts on the basis of
their allegations and provide supporting evidence so that we can
look into that, and if there's insufficient evidence provided, then
we can't make the inquiries until we have that information.
So we've asked that for that information to be provided.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Okay, so they have to they've got to provide that
written information and then you're able to go from there so.

Speaker 2 (01:22):
We can start to look into the matter. So, in
regards to campaign material, a person commits an offense if
they intentionally engage in conduct and that conduct results in
the publication or distribution of campaign material, and that person
is reckless in that regard. So it's a matter we'll
certainly look into, but we do need that information with
evidence supporting fact type supporting the allegations being made.

Speaker 1 (01:45):
What is like, what are the ramifications the potential ramifications
here if it is found that that you know this
person or this this person's team's done something dodgy.

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So again it is an offensive. Someone publishes materials and
when they do there's no valid authorization or that hasn't
been valid. The person authorizing isn't the person it may
be seen to be be fraudulent or reckless, but there
needs to be investigations made or inquiries made to understand
the details when we actually see the facts of the matter.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Okay, So from this point on it sounds as though
waiting for the facts of the matter and then you'll
be able to go from there again like is there
a fine in place or what or is it then
like a court a legal issue if you know, if
all the evidence is there.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
So there are those I mentioned nearly it is there
are offenses relating to a campaign material. So even offense
was established, there is a maximum penalty of one hundred
penalty units, which is around it currently about just under
nineteen thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:46):
Yeah, right, okay, Now, in terms of where things are
at the with the latest on the count, where are
we at, commissioner.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, so we've got our thirteen day count period, so
there's been lots lots of count and rechecking of counts.
So just as an indication, there's been over one hundred
and twenty five that ballot papers have been counted, and
it's a lot higher than our number of our voting population.
That's because of the mayor ballot papers and the councilor
ballot papers for those elections. So all of those ballot

(03:15):
papers are manually looked at twice and then they're manually
looked at once and double verified manually through account system
for the multi vacancy. So there's a lot of counting
and checking that's done and that's important to make sure
that the results are accurate, and so we're continuing with that.
So today we've got around five seven hundred additional votes

(03:37):
likely to be added to the count, and they are
the absent votes. So an absent vote cast were a
person's outside their council that gets put in an envelope
and we exchange those between the Alice Springs and Dale
Screetness and yesterday and we'll start to see those numbers
being added to the count. We've had about three and
a half thousand postal votes returned and have been or
will be added to the count. So things are progressing well.

(03:59):
And all of the fresh greetiny or the recheck of
all of the mayoral physicians have occurred over the last
few days since the close of voting on election night.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
All right, so when do we see I know you
mentioned this on Monday, but just remind our listeners, when
do we see those preferences and those you know, those
start to be sort of tallied.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yeah, absolutely, So the actual quota that a candidate needs
to achieve to be elected is determined by the number
of formal votes. So for a single vacancy position like
a mayor, the total number of formal results counted divided
by two plus one is the quota that someone needs
to achieve to be elected. So there are a number

(04:37):
of elections there where there based on the current votes counted,
and there's still more votes to be counted. There's quite
a big difference between the highest candidate on first preferences
and the quota that needs to be achieved, noting there's
still a lot more ballot papers to be counted. So
the distribution of preferences takes place on Friday, the fifth
of September, and that can only occur after the deadline

(04:58):
for receipt of postal votes, So that's at twelve noon
on the fifth of September. So if anyone still got
their completed postal vote, please return it to the NTECH office.
We have to have received it by twelve noon. After
that we do final counts. After that we do the
mayor vacancies because they have to be completed first because
we have a number of candidates contesting two positions and
then following that, if any distributions of preferences required, that

(05:21):
process complete. So by Friday after noon or into the
evening on the fifth of September, the results will be known.

Speaker 1 (05:27):
Okay, so not this Friday, next Friday for those out.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
There listening, and absolutely every day we're doing a daily summary,
just providing an update on the ntech website on what's
happened through the counts during the day, what's been added,
and what's happening the next day. So that's a useful
bit of information just so people can see where we're
currently tracking and the results will be updated as new
results are completed.

Speaker 1 (05:51):
Well, then to the Electoral Commissioner, Kirsten Kelly, good to
speak with you this morning. Really appreciate your time anytime.
Thanks y, Thank you,