AEC rejects Dutton call to change informal vote rules for referendum

The Australian Electoral Commission has rejected accusations it risks undermining the integrity of the voice referendum after Peter Dutton warned rules on informal votes should be changed.

Leader of the Opposition Peter Dutton has continued his attack on the referendum voting rules. Picture: Dan Peled/NCA NewsWire

The Australian Electoral Commission has strongly rejected accusations it risks undermining the integrity of the voice referendum after Peter Dutton warned its rules on informal votes could distort the result in favour of the Yes campaign and should be changed.

In a statement on Friday, the AEC said it “completely and utterly rejects suggestions by some that by transparently following the established, public and known legislative requirements we are undermining the impartiality and fairness of the referendum”.

A furore erupted this week after Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers said that while longstanding “savings provisions” allowed a tick to be counted as a Yes vote, a cross would be rendered an informal vote because of ambiguity.

The AEC on Friday added that more than 99 per cent of votes at the 1999 republic referendum were formal and that of the 0.86 per cent of informal votes, “many would have had no relevance to the use of ticks or crosses”.

Australian Electoral Commissioner Tom Rogers. Picture: Sky News

But the Opposition Leader continued his attack on the referendum voting rules on Friday, saying Australians wanted a free and fair vote at the referendum.

“What we’re seeing here is quite a departure from that,” he told the Nine’s Today program.

“It doesn’t matter whether you’re a Yes or No, the question is whether or not it’s a fair process,” Mr Dutton said.

“The Prime Minister has withheld detail for months and months, which I think has made Australians angry and suspicious, and now we’re seeing a process where a tick can count for a Yes but a cross won’t count for a No.”

ALP national president Wayne Swan accused the No campaign of “doing what many other right-wing parties around the world are doing – discrediting basic electoral arrangements”.

“It is appalling. I’m disgusted by their behaviour,” Mr Swan said.

Earlier in the week, Mr Dutton and his legal affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash wrote to the AEC, saying its approach to the referendum was “fundamentally lopsided” and risked distorting the voice referendum vote. Mr Dutton has also called on Anthony Albanese to consider clarifying in legislation what is allowed so that one side of the debate is not favoured over the other.

For more than 30 years in multiple referendums the AEC has relied on legal advice that a tick on a ballot paper can’t be disputed as a Yes and so can be counted, but a cross cannot be accepted as a No.

Kerry Jones, who ran the No case during the 1999 referendum on a republic, said she did not recall that ticks and crosses were an issue for either side at the time.

“I have no memory of the ticks and crosses on the ballot paper being a problem,” Dr Jones said.