‘Very disappointing’: One Nation slammed by AEC for Albo ‘voter fraud’ cartoon

The Australian Electoral Commission is looking into a One Nation cartoon suggesting Labor could win the election through voter fraud.

The Australian Electoral Commission is looking into a One Nation cartoon suggesting Labor could win the election through voter fraud.

The latest Pauline Hanson’s Please Explain skit features Penny Wong advocating the use of fake postal ballots to a Covid-stricken Anthony Albanese.

“I brought you these,” she says. “These are postal votes under the names of dead people, fake identities, some were stolen out of letterboxes.”

Wong, who feeds Albo a bowl of “bat soup”, says the AEC doesn’t check IDs “because that would be racist”.

“Last election there were thousands of people that voted more than once, and only about 20 of those people were investigated, and no one’s ever been convicted of voter fraud,” she says.

“The AEC won’t find out until it’s too late, and by the time they realise, we’ll already be in government – kicking back, passing laws, spending money.”

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This commentary about the electoral system is very disappointing.

Registered parties are aware of electoral integrity measures in place including information received / roll objection action taken for deceased Australians, and outbound & inbound postal vote verification steps.

— AEC ✏️ (@AusElectoralCom) April 28, 2022

The ABC reports the AEC is “investigating to see whether it can do anything about this skit because of the allegations of voter fraud in Australia”.

News.com.au has contacted the AEC for comment.

“This commentary about the electoral system is very disappointing,” the AEC replied on One Nation’s Twitter post.

“Registered parties are aware of electoral integrity measures in place including information received / roll objection action taken for deceased Australians, and outbound & inbound postal vote verification steps.”

Pauline Hanson at the Horse & Jockey in Singleton. Picture: Sean Bell

Meanwhile, the AEC has referred a One Nation candidate to the Australian Federal Police for nominating in two different electorates under two separate political parties.

Malcolm Heffernan was declared as a candidate for the Division of Banks in NSW under One Nation, and the Division of Brand in WA under the Australian Federation Party.

“Mr Heffernan’s nomination for two electoral divisions is in contravention of section 165 of the Electoral Act,” the AEC said in a statement on Friday.

“Each nomination form had a signed declaration that the candidate did not intend to be a candidate in any other election held the same day … Each nomination form had differences in the listed information – including a different date of birth, and a different expression of the candidate’s name.

“Given these declarations are false the AEC has now referred the matter to the Australian Federal Police for investigation as to whether a crime has been committed under section 136 and/or 137 of the Criminal Code. We have notified Mr Heffernan and both registered political parties regarding this referral.

“Contravention of section 165 of the Electoral Act renders Mr Heffernan incapable of being elected. However, candidate nominations for the Divisions of Banks and Brand must remain as they were formally declared on 22 April 2022.

“Ballot papers have been printed and some postal voters have already received their postal voting packs.”

One Nation has been contacted for comment.

Originally published as ‘Very disappointing’: One Nation slammed by AEC for Albo ‘voter fraud’ cartoon