WA Liberals apologise over voice referendum postal vote mistake

The WA Liberals have been forced to tell constituents that postal vote applications returned before referendum writs were issued are invalid.

Concerns were raised by Labor and independents in September when the Liberal Party letterboxed postal vote applications across WA ahead of the writ for the referendum being issued on September 11.

West Australian Liberals have been forced to tell constituents that postal vote applications sent back to the party before the writs for the referendum were issued are invalid, urging them to re­apply with the Australian Electoral Commission.

Concerns were raised by Labor and independents in September when the Liberal Party letterboxed postal vote applications across WA ahead of the writ for the referendum being issued on September 11.

While the Australian Electoral Commission confirmed at the time that sending such applications did not technically break any laws, a spokeswoman told The Australian on Monday the AEC had spoken with the Liberal Party directly and advised against the practice.

“The AEC was very clear in our communication publicly at the time, including direct liaison, about the requirements and about the fact that people needing a postal vote should apply directly through us instead,” she said.

In an email from the WA Liberals, constituents who sent back their application to the party before September 11 were issued an apology and told they would need to reapply before Wednesday.

“We’re writing to let you know that while the Prime Minister announced the date of the referendum and launched the Yes campaign on 30 August, he had not actually issued the writ to start the referendum. That only happened on 11 September,” the email, seen by The Australian, said. “This means that forms signed before that date will not be accepted by the AEC. Unfortu­nately, this means you need to reapply for a postal vote. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

The email criticised the Prime Minister for announcing the date of the vote on the voice without formally starting the election or referendum.

“It is not regular practice for a prime minister to announce the date and launch their campaign without formally starting the election or referendum,” the email said.

WA independent Kate Chaney said the Liberals had sent out postal applications in a bid to harvest data and had now left people “scrambling to cast their vote on time”.