For this podcast Ben interviews two scrutineers about their experience in the recounts: Adelaide, a Liberal scrutineer from Bradfield, and KJ, an independent scrutineer from Goldstein. Ben also discusses the recount procedures he saw in Bradfield last week and the latest count updates from Monday afternoon.
- Ben’s blog post about visiting the Bradfield recount
- The podcast features the song ‘It’s a Draw’ by Nick Craft.
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Has a seat ever ended in a draw, as in both candidates got the same number of TPP/TCP votes? I remember in the Alice Springs mayoral election it went to a recount and the margin was two votes.
I’m not sure, but what happens then? I’m assuming the candidate with a higher primary is elected, like in DOP.
Victorian upper house seat of Eumemmerring did in the 80’s, the returning Officer then pulled a name from a hat to determine the winner
@Captain Moonlight It was Nunawading Province, but yeah. They eventually redid the election for the seat after deciding a tie was dubious enough (with enough margin of error in the counting) to request a by-election. Probably a good thing too, given that I think a lucky dip is an especially unfair way to decide who makes government.
Can’t see the player?
Sorry, player is in there now.
At least the scrutineers are professional about it. There was a seat once involving Clive Palmer, or whatever he was calling himself at the time; his scrutineers were shambolic, arguing with the counters, challenging everything, basically turning it into a circus.
If Bradfield ends at 2-3-4, I expect it to end in Court. There is more than a non-zero chance of a revote. Anything north of 10 it gets trickier.
The fact that we are talking about this is emblematic of the times. Ten years ago, the Liberal candidate was getting mid-60s primaries, and here we are.
@craig it will end up in court either way. the libs wont let it go without a fight and it depends if boele has the resources/will to fight it in court if she loses
‘Simon Says’ will provide whatever funding is necessary to help Boele with the litigation, surely.
I just feel sorry for all the young hairdressers in Bradfield.
as Micheal Kroger pointed out last night when your dealing with over 110,000 votes in this case 118,858 and the margin is only 26 votes surely youd need to run another check. no matter who won. you need to be sure the result is correct
That was the “another check”. This was the third count and the legislated final one. How many more would you like?
What evidence do you have that this count was not correct; given it was likely scrutineered within an inch of existence and one of the most senior election officials in the country was involved in the formality checks?
Surely someone of Mr Kroger’s experience is blindingly aware of how it all works. If there are other biases or motives in the request for another count, then these should be openly stated.
“it will end up in court either way” is not a factual statement. “It may end up in court, if the losing party decides to take that path” is better.
@john
Weren’t you accusing Zoe Daniel of being a “sore loser” for calling for a recount in Goldstein? Sure, the circumstances differ – the margin in Goldstein was wider, but also, Daniel was calling for a recount, not a court case after a recount. It just seems rather incongruous for one to consider Daniel’s actions that of a “sore loser” while also arguing that it’s reasonable and necessary for Bradfield to end up in court after a recount.
Since Boele is the declared winner of the election and presumptive MP, the onus is on Ms. Kapterian, and I assume the costs as well. 26 is tight, but not as tight as 2-3-4. After three go-rounds, it will be hard to overturn that unless you challenge everything and/or argue for more informal votes to count. I am not even sure that I would expect the Liberals to take it to the courts at this point. As much as any party wants every seat they can get, they have bigger problems to deal with. I am not sure if the party would benefit from a protracted fight. It is doubtful they could get the election decided in their favour. At the very best, they could get a revote, which they may very well lose after all of this. It is time for the party to take its lumps and deal with the reality of the situation. Tim Wilson won a tight one back from the Teals, so I guess you could say they are even on those. The fact remains, however, that they are losing their grip on urban areas. Regarding the process side of this, the informal rate in Bradfield aligns closely with the informal rate nationwide, so there should be no unique issues that could lead to further scrutiny.
@Nicholas
Especially when the Goldstein partial recount turned up much larger errors than the Bradfield full recount.