Ballot bungle puts Palmer party Senate hopes on hold

HUNDREDS of ballots have been found mistakenly placed in the informal pile during the recount of the West Australian Senate vote.

SEVERAL hundred ballots have been found mistakenly placed in the informal pile during the extremely tight recount of the West Australian Senate vote, which will determine whether mining magnate Clive Palmer's party wins a third upper house seat and bolsters his voting bloc.

The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed the error yesterday and said the votes would be added to the tally marked below the line tomorrow.

The ALP is being advised by its national returning officer, barrister Tony Lang, on the recount, and is expected to appeal to the Court of Disputed Returns if its candidate Louise Pratt misses out, meaning there would be no result until after Christmas.

The AEC's West Australian spokesman, Brendon Barlow, said yesterday that more than 750,000 of the 1.25 million ballots being recounted had been tallied by Saturday. All the rural and regional divisions were completed and counting was progressing in the six metropolitan divisions.

"Certainly there's been movement of ballot papers from informals, from polling places, to below the lines. I'd put it down to the inexperience of the polling officials. They actually haven't checked the ballot papers thoroughly," Mr Barlow said.

"But they'll obviously be picked up when they're put through the central system. At this stage we're only talking about a couple of hundred."

But the outcome hinges on a crucial choke point where the Australian Christians candidate was knocked out during the initial count after finishing 14 points behind the Shooters and Fishers Party candidate.

That initially delivered wins to the Palmer United Party's Zhenya Wang and Labor's Louise Pratt, and ousted Greens senator Scott Ludlam.

But the result was put on hold after Senator Ludlam and Australian Sports Party candidate Wayne Dropulich won an appeal to the AEC to recount the above-the-line votes, which represent 96 per cent of the 1.3 million formal votes.

The AEC aims to merge the above-the-line and below-the-line votes on Friday and declare a result the same day or Monday.

If the Australian Christians finish ahead of the Shooters and Fishers party this time, Senator Ludlam and Mr Dropulich will receive the flow of preferences and secure the last two WA Senate positions.

Mr Barlow said it was unclear exactly how the misplaced ballots would flow but he expected them to follow a similar pattern as other votes. "Whether that influences that choke point or not, we'll have to wait and see," he said.

Mr Dropulich only has two scrutineers, while the Greens have brought in interstate experts on top of local volunteers.

"They have found a lot more than 14 misplaced votes," Senator Ludlam said on his blog.

"Our efforts are working and our call for a recount has been entirely justified. The bad news is, there is no way of knowing which way the balance will tip in the final count, because scrutineers for the various parties have found misplaced votes going every which way, hundreds of them."

Mr Palmer has previously called for the AEC to recount both the above-the-line and below-the-line votes.

In the Queensland seat of Fairfax, Mr Palmer has further extended his lead over the LNP's Ted O'Brien to 67 votes, with 77 per cent of all votes cast now recounted.

The AEC said its electoral officer had made decisions on all but 10,000 of the 44,000 challenged votes.