Tim Wilson urges scrutineers to ‘knock out informal votes' for Zoe Daniel in leaked WhatsApp messages
Liberal candidate Tim Wilson has urged his scrutineers in Goldstein to 'knock out informal votes being counted' for independent Zoe Daniel, warning her team has done so 'with extreme precision' as the contest tightened this week.
Wilson was declared the projected winner of Goldstein last week, a seat he lost at the 2022 election, but the gap in votes narrowed considerably in recent hours, with the former assistant minister now leading by just 294 votes.
Leaked messages from a WhatsApp group called 'Goldstein blue tsunami' show Wilson told supporters the narrowing vote should not be a problem for his campaign, but said it 'highlights the EXTREME necessity for scrutineers to be available'.
'They are knocking out votes for us with extreme precision,' Wilson wrote.
Scrutineers are entitled to challenge votes for another candidate if ballot papers are unclear, have missing numbers, use words or ticks and crosses instead of numbers, or are not appropriately signed by an electoral commission officer.
'If a full recount occurs, we will need a massive scrutineering team because every vote will need to be scrutinised and it will be a race to see who can knock out the most votes. Let's hope that doesn't happen.
'If the teals keep knocking out votes and we are not doing the same. The votes will be the votes. The difference is whether we have scrutineers to knock out informal votes that are being counted for the Teals.'
Wilson told his supporters: 'Sadly, this is something I am extremely good at doing, but I am legally prohibited from doing on this vote because I am a candidate.'
In response to the messages, Daniel said: 'As always, I thank my volunteers for their participation in an open honest democratic process'.
On Wednesday night, Daniel used a social media post to say she was hopeful a batch of internal postal votes landing in the next two days would break towards her.
'No matter what, as always I am so buoyed by the love, support and ferocious determination that has been sent my way over the last week and a half,' Daniel said.
When contacted for comment about the WhatsApp messages, Wilson said there were 'plenty' of Liberals scrutineering and that there was nothing unusual about this process of casting aside informal votes.
'They are knocking out informal votes for us,' Wilson said. 'We are knocking out informal votes for them. None of this is new.'
He also cited scutineer training material from Zoe Daniel's campaign, seen by Guardian Australia, that instructed scrutineers to pay careful attention to Wilson's votes.
'We only challenge Tim Wilson's votes,' the training manual said. 'No need to check that Zoe's ballots are formal. Tim's scrutineers will do that.
The tightening in Goldstein is being matched in the Sydney seat of Bradfield, where the Liberal party believes candidate Gisele Kapterian will win, despite independent Nicolette Boele reducing Kapterian's lead to just 70 votes, down from 80 on Wednesday afternoon.
Another 200 votes are expected to be counted on Thursday. Some 2,000 postal votes are yet to be returned in the seat, ahead of Friday's deadline. About 500 absentee ballots also remain to be counted.
Media outlets, including the ABC and Sky News, called the seat for Kapterian earlier this week, but returned it to 'in doubt' as her lead shrunk.
Automatic recounts are ordered for any seat with a margin of less than 100 votes.
Australian Electoral Commission officials on Thursday realigned the two-party preferred count in the New South Wales seat of Hunter, where Pauline Hanson's One Nation party moved into second place.
Labor's Dean Repacholi is on track for a 10% margin, despite the stronger than expected performance of One Nation's Stuart Bonds. Nationals candidate Sue Gilroy suffered a more than 6% swing away from her, moving her to third place.
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