2,000 missing ballot papers taken home by transport officer

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The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) is investigating how nearly 2,000 ballot papers from the federal seat of Barton ended up being left behind at a transport worker’s house after the election.

A whole container of votes went missing on election night and was only found days later… at the private home of a temporary AEC transport officer.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says the mix-up was “inadvertent” and insists it didn’t affect the result. Labor’s Ash Ambihaipahar comfortably held the seat with 61.66% of the two-party preferred vote.

Still, it’s a pretty serious slip-up.

“This shouldn’t have occurred, and we’re deeply concerned that our process didn’t catch it earlier,” a spokesperson said.

So how was it discovered?

Turns out, it was the AEC’s internal tracking system that raised the red flag. During the mandatory second count, staff noticed that one ballot container had never shown up at the counting centre.

That kicked off a multi-day search.

Eventually, the AEC confirmed that the container had been accidentally taken home by a transport officer and simply forgotten.

The good news? When they finally located it, the container was fully intact, the security seals were unbroken, and all the ballot papers were accounted for. They were quickly returned, rechecked, and counted.

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) says there were some communication difficulties with the staffer involved, but they’re confident it was not a deliberate act.

“We believe this was a genuine mistake,” the spokesperson said. “But we’ll be reviewing our return procedures to make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

No word yet on exactly where in the house the ballots were found — but this will no doubt raise more questions about election logistics and oversight in the future.

Stay tuned with Aus News Lanka – the leading platform for news for Australians.