Jane Lomax-Smith calls for scrutiny on phone, international student voting rules

Rules that let international students vote just months after arriving should be heavily scrutinised, one Lord Mayor candidate says, as another goes further.

Adelaide City Council chambers. Picture: Jack Fenby

Telephone voting and international student enrolment in local government elections are open to manipulation and must be heavily scrutinised, a lord mayoral candidate says.

Former cabinet minister Jane Lomax-Smith wants Local Government Minister Geoff Brock to consider changes of who has the right to vote in council elections.

“For the last decade there have been rumours of industrial scale registration, vote harvesting and orchestration of voting by candidates in the Adelaide CBD involving international students,” Ms Lomax-Smith wrote.

“Whilst nobody would wish to prevent migrants exercising their rights as residents or property owners, the capacity of international students to enrol after as little as one month in the country is clearly open to manipulation.”

It comes after The Advertiser on Tuesday revealed an alleged voter scam in the Adelaide City Council was being investigated by the Electoral Commission.

Its understood four apartment buildings home to a large number of international students have been targeted by Chinese people collecting blank ballot papers.

Lord Mayoral candidate Jane Lomax-Smith. Picture: Kelly Carpenter

Two people with a wad of ballot papers outside the Vision Apartment building. Picture: Supplied

Fellow Lord Mayoral candidate Rex Patrick went further and called on parliament to introduce legislation to end the anomaly that allows foreign, non-citizens to enrol and vote in council elections.

Police Commissioner Grant Stevens said the Electoral Commissioner were expected to meet on Wednesday to determine whether police assistance was necessary to investigate the scam.

For the first time, the Electoral Commission has also allowed telephone voting in the local government elections for people who are blind, have low vision, or if they are interstate or overseas during the voting period.

“In view of the unintended consequences of the current franchise one must also question the risk inherent in allowing phone voting from overseas,” Ms Lomax-Smith wrote.

Lord Mayor Sandy Verschoor, who is seeking re-election, said the alleged city scam could have widespread implications for Central Ward, Area councillors and the Lord Mayor outcome.

“We are trying to get people to vote, when you don’t have people voting this is what you get – vote stacking,” Ms Verschoor said.

“The best thing we can do is plea for the other 10,000 people in Central Ward that haven’t voted to please use their democratic right and vote.”

Ms Verschoor said if ECSA wanted to do a recall of Central Ward ballot papers it must be done swiftly.

An ECSA spokeswoman said the scam complaint was being investigated and “ECSA has the scrutiny and processes in place to ensure the integrity of the election”.

Mr Brock said the electoral commissioner had full responsibility to investigate complaints and conducts a review after every election “of which all aspects are scrutinised”.