Election umpire ordered to register controversial how-to-vote cards for teal candidates

A decision to stop “misleading” election material being distributed has been overturned. Here’s why.

Teal independent candidate for Mornington Kate Lardner has won the right to distribute her how-to-vote cards after being told they were misleading by the Victorian Electoral Commission. Picture: Supplied

A decision to reject “misleading” how-to-vote cards proposed by teal candidates has been overturned.

The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Thursday ordered the Victorian Electoral Commission to register the cards submitted by candidates Kate Lardner, Sophie Torney and Michelle Lowe.

All three woman had submitted cards featuring blank ballot boxes to be registered for use on election day.

Earlier this week all three cards were knocked back over fears they would “mislead or deceive voters”.

Dr Lardner, who is running in the Mornington district, had continued to use the cards at early voting centres and was handing them out on Wednesday.

Ms Torney in Kew and Ms Lowe for Hawthorn had switched to different cards that did not depict blank ballot boxes.

VCAT president Justice Michelle Quigley found that the original cards were not likely to deceive or mislead “naive and gullible” voters.

Justice Quigley said the how-to-vote cards proposed by Ms Torney and Ms Lowe had four “exhortations” to electors to number every box on the ballot and Dr Lardner’s cards advised voters on three separate occasions to do the same.

She said in order to make a decision she had to “forecast the future” by considering analysis of past elections, including the use of cards with blank ballot boxes by Kooyong teal independent Monique Ryan at the federal election in May.

The tribunal heard the informal vote for Kooyong was “extremely low” at 2.89 per cent compared to the state average of 4.7 per cent.

Barrister Adam McBeth, who represented the three candidates, said Kooyong covered all of the state district of Hawthorn and most of the state district of Kew.

“The very same people who will be voting in November,” Dr McBeth said.

The tribunal was told that the Australian Electoral Commission does not require how-to-vote-cards to be registered but still monitored election material.

“The AEC had no issues with Dr Ryan’s cards,” Dr McBeth said.

The court also heard that of the 25 per cent of informal votes cast at the 2018 state election, most involved only one number being completed on the ballot paper.

However, Justice Quigley said there was no indication that how-to-vote cards were relied on by electors making informal votes.

None of the candidates appeared to be present for the online hearing, however all are supported by Climate 200 and founder Simon Holmes a Court was online for the proceeding.

Teals in blue with election umpire over how-to-vote-card

A teal independent is handing out “misleading” how-to-vote cards on the Mornington Peninsula despite the election umpire ruling that the cards can’t be used.

Dr Kate Lardner was on Wednesday handing out the cards to early voters in the Mornington electorate, less than 24 hours after being told the material might deceive electors and was refused registration.

The Victorian Electoral Commission advised Dr Lardner at 11.06am on Tuesday that the how-to-vote cards, which included blank ballot boxes, could lead to informal votes.

The cards have a “1” beside Ms Lardner’s name and leaves the rest of the boxes unnumbered, advising voters to fill the remaining boxes in the order of “who you like the most to least”.

Dr Lardner was reminding voters to number every box as she handed out cards on Wednesday afternoon at an early polling booth in Mornington.

The how-to-vote card for Kate Lardner.

She told Leader that she was able to use the how-to-vote cards until election day on November 26.

Dr Lardner’s campaign manager Conal Feehely said the team had not been told the cards could not be distributed in the lead up to the election.

“Our interpretation of the Electoral Act 2002 is that it’s only an issue for election day,” Mr Feehely said.

However, the commission said the use of a card in the lead up to election day depended on the reason it was refused registration.

“If it was refused registration because the card might mislead or deceive an elector in the casting of their vote … distribution will be an offence under section 84 of the Electoral Act,” a commission spokesman said.

“The penalty for noncompliance is a $11,095.20 fine or six months imprisonment for an individual and a $55,476 fine for a body corporate.”

Dr Lardner said she was challenging the decision to reject her how-to-vote-card for use on election day at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.

A hearing was scheduled for Thursday.

A Liberal Party campaign spokesman slammed Dr Lardner’s tactics.

“It’s clear that the reason that the Teal party candidate is refusing to allocate preferences is because she will be forced to reveal that she backs the re-election of Daniel Andrews and Labor over a fresh start with Matt Guy and Liberals,” they said.

“If the Teal Party candidate had even an ounce of the integrity that she claims to have, she would cease distributing her dodgy HTVs at pre-poll.”

The VEC how-to-vote-card ruling differed to that given for the May federal election by the Australian Electoral Commission which allowed candidates, including Monique Ryan, to use cards with a similar format.

On Tuesday Dr Lardner said the commission was trying to force independent candidates to direct preferences.

“Being unable to use this how-to-vote card in its current format is likely to put my campaign’s chances of winning at risk,” she said.

“In what is expected to be an extremely tight contest, rulings like these will matter.”

Other teal candidates running for Victorian seats faced the same dilemma including

Melissa Lowe for Hawthorn, Sophie Torney in Kew, Felicity Frederico in Brighton and Nomi Kaltmann for Caulfield.

How-to-vote cards being handed out for Ms Lowe and Ms Torney at early polling booths on Wednesday did not include blank ballot boxes or list the names of other candidates.

The cards for Ms Lowe advised voters to “put a ‘1’ next to Melissa and then number every box from 2 – 8 to make your vote count”.

Ms Torney was using a similar style.

Leader understands both women initially submitted how-to-vote cards in the same format as that used by Dr Lardner.