Missing WA Senate votes: lax security led to lost ballot papers, report finds

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/06/missing-wa-senate-votes-lax-security

Version 0 of 1.

More than 1,000 ballot papers in Western Australia went missing in 2013 because the Australian Electoral Commission did not follow sufficiently rigorous procedures ensuring their security, according to the former federal police commissioner Mick Keelty.

Keelty – who was called in to investigate the loss of more than 1,300 ballot papers after they vanished during a recount of the 2013 WA senate vote – rebuked the AEC in his report of the incident.

The lost ballots have inflicted significant reputational damage on the AEC and are likely to trigger a new Senate election in WA.

“In the 2013 Senate election in WA, the AEC failed to meet its own high standards and damaged its reputation with the community and parliament,” Keelty included in his report, released by the AEC on Friday.

Keelty gave a blast to the “loose planning culture in WA”. He said poor skills development, poor material management practices, flawed contract management and quality control, “erroneous assumptions and lax supervision and enforcement combined to create an environment where these high standards could not be met”.

The former AFP chief was unable to conclude whether the ballots were lost, were the subject of “deliberate human intervention” of whether they were discarded by accident.

“Regardless, the system of control established by WA was simply not sufficient to minimise the risk of such an occurrence, or to then provide an auditable trail or evidence of a continuous chain of custody to enable the inquiry to uncover, with certainty, what happened,” he said.

The Abbott government has already issued a blistering public rebuke to the AEC over the missing ballots, and on Friday, the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, demanded the electoral commissioner and the commission take “full responsibility for what occurred”.

“The fundamental responsibility of the AEC is to ensure the security of votes cast by the people of Australia,” Ronaldson said. “They rightly would have assumed that the AEC’s existing processes and procedures already provided the appropriate level of protection.

“As I have said previously, incidents such as this go to the heart of the AEC’s reputation.Trust in our democratic institutions is paramount.”

The AEC issued a statement saying it would adopt all of Keelty’s recommendations to improve the integrity of its processes.

Specific recommendations from Keelty include the introduction of “tamper-evident” materials for the transfer and storage of ballot papers, both to and from vote counting centres, as well as for long-term storage in warehouses. He also argued for the installation of CCTV and alarms at warehouses, and a boost to training for AEC staff.

“A dedicated taskforce led by deputy electoral commissioner Tom Rogers will immediately begin the work of implementing Mr Keelty’s recommendations,” the AEC said in a statement issued Friday.

“Discussions have already commenced with transport and logistics providers for the introduction of industry best practice controls over the movement and control of ballots and valuable items and a review of relevant AEC training materials,” it said.

“An AEC review has also commenced of ballot paper storage arrangements in all warehouses used by the AEC across Australia.”

Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning.