Federal Election: Recount underway at Menzies polling booth after Liberal MP Keith Wolahan's vote drops by 1851 votes overnight
A recount is being conducted in a key seat in the Federal Election after the number of votes for a rising star in the Liberal Party fell by more than 1800 overnight on Saturday.
The discrepancy occurred in the seat of Menzies, where Liberal MP Keith Wolahan currently trails Labor's Gabriel Ng by 1,384 votes.
Sources have told Sky News that an AEC document from election night shows Mr Wolahan received 8,817 votes at a booth in Doncaster East, but a second count carried out on Sunday showed this had fallen to just 6,996 – a loss of 1851 votes.
The initial vote count was carried out with the presence of Liberal Party volunteers and certified at 10.30pm on Saturday.
The second count was done at 1.30am on Sunday, with sources saying this occurred after scrutineers had gone home.
The Liberal Party is not alleging any conspiracy or wrongdoing, but is currently supervising a recount of votes from the booth, and questions are being asked about how the discrepancy occurred.
The AEC has described the discrepancy as a 'transcription" error that was "quickly rectified".
"In the count for Menzies, an error in the transcription of the original count was detected and quickly rectified during scrutiny on Sunday. Scrutineers were present for this process," an AEC spokesperson said.
"It's not unusual for the AEC to make corrections as we continue with the counting process."
The AEC spokesperson also said the recount being conducted is part of the normal process.
"Election night counts are conducted by our temporary election workforce at the end of the polling day. The 'fresh scrutiny' currently being conducted is a re-check of all ordinary ballot papers received from every polling place, pre-poll voting centre and mobile polling team in a division, and is required by the Electoral Act to further ensure the accuracy of the counting process," they said.
Former Nationals leader Michael McCormack said the first ever recount in his own seat of Riverina had occurred way back in 1903, leading to a legal battle which went all the way to the High Court.
'They had a by-election and John Chanter resumed the role, given the fact that there was (a discrepancy of) about five votes at that time, let alone 1851,' Mr McCormack.
The Nationals MP also raised concerns about the high number of informal votes, which he described as a 'real concern'.
'I think we need uniformity, quite frankly, across local, state and federal elections,' he said.
'You can't turn up to a state election, put a number one (on) your ballot, and that's valid … and then turn up to a federal election just a few months later and have to number every box. It is confusing for people.
'People waste their vote, and that is such a tragedy, given the fact that there are 103,000 names on the rolls of honour at the War Memorial, men and women who died for this country so that we can have a fair and free democratic vote.
'I mean, in the Riverina, 11 per cent; the informal would have run third had it been a candidate.'
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