Almost 800,000 eligible voters did not cast a ballot in last year’s state election, prompting the NSW government to set up a special inquiry to tackle the “democratic gap” with new ambitious targets of 100 per cent enrolment and 100 per cent turnout.
Special Minister of State John Graham has also asked that the parliamentary inquiry look at artificial intelligence-generated electoral content, including deepfake technology, after misinformation swirled during last year’s election campaign.
The democratic gap of people who were entitled to vote in last year’s election but who did not was 791,759, including 74,677 people who were eligible but not enrolled, 553,646 who were enrolled but did not cast a vote, and 163,436 people who cast an informal vote.
Pre-polling at Leichhardt Town Hall ahead of last year’s state election.Credit: Steven Siewert
Graham said he wanted NSW to aim for “100 per cent enrolment rate, 100 per cent turnout rate, 100 per cent formality rate, 100 per cent confidence”.
However, Graham was also concerned that misinformation around elections would worsen and become more sophisticated with the rise of AI technology.
The NSW Electoral Commission keeps a disinformation register and “tracks and rebuts prominent false and misleading statements about electoral processes in our state”.
Some of the claims it rebuts include “election officials move ballot boxes before election day to hide/destroy them” and “election officials have an eraser under one fingernail and a piece of graphite under the other. They use this to erase your vote out and fill another in”.
There are also reoccurring themes of alleged corruption of officials, as well as the “electoral role is corrupt” and MPs are “selected not elected”.
A report by Purpose, a global social impact agency, looked at the “spread of misinformation and hate speech online” during last year’s state election, highlighting five case studies.
One case study focused on “footage of a person confronting NSW election staff and accusing them of interfering with pre-poll votes” before sharing the footage across multiple online platforms, including TikTok, Telegram, Twitter (now X) and Facebook just days before the March poll.
“The people filming off-camera say, ‘it’s another rigged election is it?’, ‘that is illegal’, ‘this is nice and dicey isn’t it?’, ‘how corrupt is this?’,” Purpose’s report said.
Former federal MP Craig Kelly has since deleted his tweet about last year’s state election.Credit: Purpose
Over the following days, the footage was reposted by a number of high-profile accounts, including an account belonging to former federal MP Craig Kelly, Purpose said.
Kelly uploaded the video as a Twitter post, with the text: “I’m sure there’s a good excuse as to why a bloke in shorts and a T-shirt is driving off with ballot boxes full of votes in what appears to be his private car. But whatever the excuse – the SECURE CHAIN OF CUSTODY OF THE BALLOTS HAS BEEN COMPROMISED.”
Purpose said Kelly’s video received more than 120,000 views and thousands of interactions.
“Six hours after Kelly’s tweet, the NSW Electoral Commission account posted a reply, linking to its explanation of the incident. However, this reply was seen less than 9000 times,” the report said.
Graham has asked the parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters to consider several issues in its inquiry, ranging from axing the requirement for a reason to vote early and processing early and postal votes before the close of voting.
“A single vote is precious, and it is both alarming and disappointing that almost 800,000 votes did not count at last year’s NSW election,” Graham said.
“Closing this democratic gap is important for the future of our electoral system.”
Graham said “maintaining voter confidence in the integrity of electoral processes is essential to maintaining a robust democracy”.
“Unfortunately, public confidence can easily be eroded due to actual or perceived weaknesses in the integrity or security of electoral systems, matters which misinformation and disinformation campaigns can easily exploit,” Graham’s letter said.
The inquiry will report “well ahead of the 2027 election”.
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