Foreign interference a ‘very real’ threat Victoria’s 2026 election, warns poll chief

Victoria's top election official has sent a warning on foreign interference and disinformation as authorities prepare unprecedented security measures for next year’s poll.

Next year's Victorian state election faces the 'very real threat' of foreign interference.

Foreign interference and disinformation pose a “very, very real” threat to Victoria’s 2026 state election, the state’s top election official has warned, as authorities work closely with federal intelligence agencies to protect the integrity of the vote.

Victorian Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel said the state was preparing for a broad spectrum of interference and disinformation risks ahead of the ­November 2026 poll, ranging from foreign state actors to local activists spreading lies online.

“It’s such a rapidly evolving field,” Mr Bluemmel said. “I talk regularly, as do my counterparts, with federal intelligence agencies about foreign interference and all those sorts of things,” he said.

“It can be the whole spectrum – it can be a sophisticated state actor or at least their sponsor … through to some individual here in Victoria who is sharing with their group trying to get traction.”

Victorian Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel.

While a multi-agency taskforce reported no interference activities were identified that undermined public confidence in the outcome of this year’s federal election, Mr Bluemmel said the threat was “very, very real”.

He said disinformation and misinformation had become “increasingly an issue with elections here and all around the world”, but stressed the Victorian Electoral Commission’s remit was tightly focused on safeguarding the voting process rather than policing the truthfulness of political claims.

“All we care about at the VEC is misinformation and disinformation about the electoral process,” he said. “We don’t have truth in political advertising in Victoria. Most places in Australia don’t either.

“What we do care about is misinformation and disinformation about the voting process. So if someone has said, for example, ‘you don’t have to vote’ or ‘voting centres close early today so go home’. They’re the sort of things we care about very much.”

Mr Bluemmel said the goal was to maintain public confidence that the Victorian election remained free, fair and accessible.

“For us, it’s purely about the electoral process,” he said.

“If someone says something about their rival candidate or their policies, it’s not our concern. But if they’re telling people not to vote, or that voting centres are closed when they aren’t – we step in.”

Mr Bluemmel said the VEC would be working to identify and counter false information about when, where and how Victorians can cast their ballots, but warned it wasn’t as simple as telling social media giants to take posts down.

“We do all the stuff with social media and identify those things, keep up where we can and get on the front foot,” he said.

“As we always do, we’re going to work with social media companies about that … now that’s only a small part of what we can actually do, because social media often is not that interested in taking down materials.”

Voters at Collingwood Town Hall in the Richmond seat on election day for the 2022 Victorian state election. A further shift to prepoll voting is expected next year. Picture: Mark Stewart

Mr Bluemmel said the mechanics of running a Victorian election had also become markedly more complex. The VEC expects a record shift away from election day voting in 2026, with as many as 60 per cent cast early or by post.

To manage that task, the VEC is ramping up its operational footprint, planning for about 27,500 temporary election roles – up from 21,000 in 2022 – and expanding mobile voting, particularly in regional areas, to around 900 locations across the state.

Thirty-one field-based hubs will be established to manage operations across multiple districts, a model designed to decentralise communication, speed up responses to issues on the ground and ease pressure on head office.

A new operational command centre will also oversee the delivery of the election, centrally monitoring voting centres and regional hubs, triaging incidents and co-ordinating communication between VEC headquarters and field staff.

“Things are getting more complex with elections,” Mr Bluemmel said. “We’re seeing increased numbers of candidates, with more smaller parties.”

The VEC will run an end-to-end rehearsal of the entire electoral process in March 2026 to test the new operating model and identify any problems before writs are issued on November 3 next year. Early voting is scheduled to open on November 18, with election day on November 28.