Labor wins S.A. election

[Siso]

Being invited and already having an email has definitely started a relationship, and remembering these people also "work" for us!

[facthunter]

They work for "US" collectively.   He/she can't satisfy every Individual.  Isn't that obvious?  Nev

[Siso]

Not when the conversation is started. They should reply, even if it is from their office, which is what I was expecting during the whole episode.

[facthunter]

I actually think Most of them work Pretty Hard. . I realise that Idea is not very Popular Here. Nev

[red750]

One of PHON's seats has been thrown into doubt.

 

https://au.yahoo.com/news/absent-votes-cast-doubt-over-015650889.html

[facthunter]

Much ado about not Much.   Nev

[old man emu]

Apparently the vote has been officially declared and the result will not change. The total number of ballots (about 70????) is said to be insufficiant to change to result. The recount is more or less a debrief session for the Electoral Commission to see what went wrong. 

[facthunter]

Simple Math Innit? Nev

[old man emu]

This seems to be an unbiased report.

https://antonygreen.com.au/sa2026-it-turns-out-the-count-aint-over/

[facthunter]

You CAN trust Anthony Green. He's also an expert in these Matters. Nev

[red750]

CONGRATULATIONS (AGAIN) CHANTELLE: So the Electoral Commission of South Australia found 642 votes they didn't know they'd lost. Then decided only 81 of them were worth counting. 🟠
Let that sit for a second.
Three sealed boxes of absent ballots were sitting somewhere, unopened, since the March 21 state election. Votes cast by real people at the Port Pirie Early Voting Centre and polling places in the electorate of Stuart, who were enrolled elsewhere and doing the normal thing of voting while away from home. Those boxes were supposed to be sent to the "absent exchange" in Adelaide, sorted by electorate, and forwarded to the correct returning officer for counting. They never were.
Nobody noticed. Not on election night. Not during the count. Not during the recount. Not when writs were returned.
81 of those votes belonged to Chantelle Thomas MP - Member for Narungga had been declared the winner for One Nation by 58 votes. So the maths suddenly mattered. ECSA ordered a further count on Friday. Scrutineers attended. The count went ahead. Chantelle increased her margin to 74. Good result. Seat confirmed.
Here is where it gets interesting.
The other 561 votes are not being counted. ECSA says the margins in those other seats are too large for the votes to change the outcome. That is probably true in a narrow mathematical sense. It is also entirely beside the point.
Because the question is not whether those 561 votes change who won. The question is how 642 votes went missing in the first place, how the absent vote reconciliation system failed to flag it, how nobody at the absent exchange noticed they had received boxes from 46 electorates instead of 47, and whether the three boxes that were found are the only three boxes that exist.
Acting Commissioner Leah McLay was asked about the cause. Her exact words were: "We have not investigated what the cause of the error was."
That is the Electoral Commission of South Australia, almost a month after the election, telling the public it has not looked into how hundreds of ballots sat uncounted in sealed boxes. And in the same breath, assuring everyone that "no other irregularities have been identified."
You cannot identify what you have not looked for.

[Grumpy Old Nasho]

Once again, good news for One Nation.

[red750]

The purpose of the post was not in regard to One Nation or their candidate, but to draw attention to the slackness of the South Australian Electoral Commission.

 

It is safe in hindsight to say the number of missed votes had no effect on the outcome, but very well could have. How can locked boxes of votes go neglected?