Teals in Hawthorn and Kew threatened with jail over how-to-vote cards

The Victorian Electoral Commission has delivered “cease and desist” letters to teal candidates for the state seats of Hawthorn and Kew, ordering them to stop handing out how-to-vote cards at pre-polling stations that do not allocate preferences and have empty boxes next to other candidates’ names.

Failure to comply with the orders would have left the candidates facing six months’ jail time or an $11,000 fine.

The how-to-vote card from Melissa Lowe that is the subject of a cease and desist letter.

The commission on Friday told Melissa Lowe, an independent candidate in the ultra-marginal seat of Hawthorn, and Kew independent Sophie Torney that their how-to-vote cards with only a “1” beside their names and an image of all the other boxes unnumbered would break electoral rules.

Both candidates wanted voters to decide for themselves how to allocate preferences, and both had understood that, while the electoral commission ban applied on election day, November 26, they could continue to hand out their how-to-vote cards at pre-polling booths.

But the electoral commission on Tuesday night sent both candidates letters threatening them with up to six months in prison if their volunteers continued to hand out the flyers at pre-polling stations.

Keegan Bartlett, the electoral commission’s electoral integrity and regulation director, told Lowe in the letter that having blank boxes next to other candidates’ names could result in an informal vote. “This would be,” Bartlett wrote, “misleading and deceptive.”

Lowe and Torney, along with two other independent candidates – Kate Lardner in Mornington and Nomi Kaltmann in Caulfield – are challenging the orders against their how-to-vote cards in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal at 9.30am on Thursday.

The Victorian Electoral Commission decision contrasts with the federal election, when the Australian Electoral Commission allowed independents – including Monique Ryan, whose federal seat of Kooyong covers the state seat of Hawthorn – to release how-to-vote cards in the same format as Lowe and Torney.

The battle over how-to-vote cards came as the Victorian Electoral Commission issued a statement on Wednesday afternoon to say Electoral Commissioner Warwick Gately would take a leave of absence from Friday to undergo important surgery that could not be delayed. Deputy Electoral Commissioner Dana Fleming will act in his place.

Hawthorn independent Lowe described the cease and desist letters sent on Tuesday as “heavy-handed”. She said her campaign team worked overnight to design and print new cards before voting reopened at 8.30am on Wednesday.

A spokesman for Lowe said the threat of jail was “an act of bad faith on the part of the VEC in the context of Melissa Lowe having informed the VEC of her intention to appeal [against its] decision to deem her how-to-vote cards non-compliant”.

The how to vote card Lowe’s campaigners are now handing out at pre-poll stations.Credit: Melissa Lowe

He said that, in what could be a close contest, the commission’s approach “could end up affecting the outcome of the election”.

A volunteer for Lowe’s campaign, Tom Potter, said the previous version of the card – which had a “1” beside Lowe’s name and empty boxes for the seven other candidates in Hawthorn – worked well with voters, who understood she was asking them to decide for themselves how to vote.

“But today [using the new format], people are pausing and looking at it in confusion,” he said. “People don’t recognise it as a how-to-vote card any more.”

A spokeswoman for the Liberal Party, which is desperate to win back Hawthorn and retain Kew, on Wednesday said that the VEC’s rules on how to vote cards were “black and white”.

Monique Ryan’s how-to-vote card for May’s federal election was not challenged by the AEC.

“Candidates cannot distribute how-to-votes at pre-poll with a mocked-up ballot paper unless every square is numbered,” the spokeswoman said.

“The VEC has made it clear that the reason blank boxes are not accepted on a how-to-vote card lodged for registration with the VEC is because they may induce a voter to vote 1 for the candidate, but not number all the remaining boxes,” leading to an informal vote.

Meanwhile, in the seat of Northcote, complaints have surfaced over “deceptive” voting cards being handed out that are seemingly designed to counteract a Coalition attempt to help the Greens beat Labor.

The Coalition last week announced it would place the Greens ahead of Labor on how-to-vote cards in the Labor-held inner-city seats of Richmond, Northcote and Albert Park.

The opposition hopes the decision will cause enough Liberal voters to place the Greens above Labor, tipping the scales in favour of the minor party when preferences are distributed between the final two candidates.

A voting card in Northcote, authorised by a mysterious person called Evros Evripidou, lists preference rankings identical to the Liberal Party voting card, except for the Labor and Greens candidates, who are flipped.

“LIBERAL, Minor Party and Independent VOTERS BEWARE,” the card states. “Don’t let your vote elect an extremist Green in Northcote.”

In fine print in the bottom corner of the document, it is stated: “This is not an official Liberal Party how-to-vote card.”

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