AEC investigates high informal vote at Missabotti election polling place
Of the 111 people who voted at Missabotti, south-west of Coffs Harbour, 50 filled out the House of Representatives ballot incorrectly.
Many are now blaming incorrect directions issued by Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) staff.
Missabotti is in the electorate of Cowper, which had 11 lower house candidates.
Resident Adrian Weir said he could clearly recall his conversation with an AEC employee who handed over his ballot papers.
"They just said to vote one to six, that's all you needed to do [on both ballot papers]," Mr Weir said.
The experience has sparked a formal AEC investigation and left residents calling for better training procedures for regional election staff.
One resident joked during an emergency meeting of concerned locals that "everyone is going to think we're the stupidest people in Australia".
Another resident, Dawn Kennedy, said she carefully researched how she would cast her vote in the federal election.
But she said AEC staff handing over her ballot papers told her only to number six candidates for the House of Representatives.
"I said straight away, 'Isn't it one to 11?', and she said, 'No, it can be just one to six,'" Ms Kennedy said.
Ms Kennedy followed the instructions and cast her vote but became confused after overhearing contrary instructions from a friend handing out how-to-vote cards.
"So I went back inside to question it, and [was told], 'No, you can vote one to six on the House of Representatives form.'"
"He said it was a valid vote."
Days after the election, Ms Kennedy realised something had gone horribly wrong after her daughter noticed a massive spike in the rate of informal voting in Missabotti.
It recorded the highest increase in informal voting (up 38.35 per cent) anywhere in Australia, other than a few mobile polling teams deployed to hospitals and prisons.
AEC spokesperson Alex Morris said it was clear that something had gone wrong in Missabotti.
"The open question now is what exactly has happened here, and what instructions were provided to voters?" he said.
Mr Morris said the informal votes would not change the result in Cowper, which was won by Nationals MP Pat Conaghan by a margin of 5,441 votes.
The AEC said it had not received allegations of incorrect information being issued by staff at other polling places.
Missabotti resident Spencer Parry said he too was given the wrong information about how to vote, but decided to follow the instructions on the ballot paper to number every candidate.
He said the incident had shaken his faith in the democratic system.
"How did that come about? Was it just one person's mistake or are there many other polling booths around the country that would hold the same wrong information?
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