The Victorian Electoral Commission has announced it will continue to count votes for the Moorabool Shire after it found a parcel of returned ballot paper envelope was incorrectly marked as late returns.
VEC spokesman Mike Lagastes said the returning officer identified a small parcel of returned ballot paper envelopes which arrived during the extended postal vote receipt period and were incorrectly sorted as “late returns.”
It comes after Moorabool mayor Allan Comrie called for an investigation into the delivery of ballot papers, amid fears votes were not counted due to postal delays and ballot papers being incorrectly stamped by Australia Post.
Mr Lagastes said any admissible ballot paper envelopes will be processed and proceed to extraction and counting.
“If any ballot papers proceed to data entry for East Moorabool, the results will be recalculated after these batches are entered,” he said. “Candidates will be given at least one hour’s notice of the results calculation time.”
The council was scheduled to be declared on Wednesday but will not be declared later this week.
Melissa Cunningham
City of Ballarat and Social Affairs Reporter
City of Ballarat and Social Affairs Reporter
