Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says AEC must do ‘anything and everything’ to stop double voting in upcoming Voice referendum

The No campaign’s star performer told the media in Adelaide she thought election rules favoured the other side.

Leading No campaigner Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) must do “anything and everything” to uphold democratic processes amid concerns about double voting in the upcoming Voice referendum.

The AEC posted on X, formerly Twitter, that “If someone votes at two different polling places within their electorate, and places their formal vote in the ballot box at each polling place, their vote is counted”.

Multiple voting is an offence. Real-time roll mark off occurs at all pre-poll centres & many polling day booths. All declaration votes are also subject to strict roll checks.

Multiple marks against hardcopy lists are identified every event & very rare.🧵https://t.co/wvygEaPKbi

— AEC ✏️ (@AusElectoralCom) October 3, 2023

It sent on to say in another post: “We cannot remove the vote from the count because, due to the secrecy of the ballot, we have no way of knowing which ballot paper belongs to which person. However, the number of double votes received is incredibly low, and usually related to mental health or age”.

Asked about the possibility of double voting — which is an offence — Ms Price said the AEC had a responsibility to uphold democratic processes.

Sturt MP James Stevens and Senator Jacinta Price campaigning for the No vote at the Marden Shopping Centre. Picture: Kelly Barnes

“It should never be that somebody should have the opportunity to vote twice because that is undemocratic as far as I’m concerned and I think the AEC has an absolute responsibility to ensure that our polling, our democracy in Australia,” she said.

Ms Price said “it does very much seem like there is more favour toward the yes side than the no side and that is a concern”.

Asked to elaborate, she cited a Federal Court decision that meant ticks on the referendum ballot paper will count as yes votes but crosses will be invalid.

She said the Yes campaign had also produced signage in a similar purple and white colour scheme to that of the AEC.

The campaign has been asked to keep the signs away from AEC signage over the concerns they could “potentially mislead voters”.

Jacinta Price said there had been more favour shown toward the Yes campaign. Picture: Kelly Barnes

Ms Price spent Wednesday morning speaking with voters in Adelaide's north-east – first at Newton Village Shopping Centre, then at a pre-poll location at Marden Shopping Centre.

She was joined by Senator Kerrynne Liddle and Sturt MP James Stevens, who said his electorate was “a very key battleground in this referendum”.

“I think if Sturt votes no, South Australia will vote no and if South Australia votes no, the referendum will be defeated,” he said.

“We take our responsibility here on the ground very seriously.”

Asked whether he was confident his electorate would vote No, Mr Stevens said “I’m never confident”.

“This is such a vitally important contest. I intend to make sure that I’ve done everything I can to see my seat voting no and if I can achieve that in Sturt then I’ll be very proud of the efforts of our whole team,” he said.