'It's really backfired': Independent slammed over 'confusing' how-to-vote cards
An independent candidate has been slammed over his how-to-vote cards which could confuse Aussies and lead to invalid ballots.
The candidate for Cowper on the Mid North Coast, Rob Oakeshott, handed out cards showing how to vote in the House of Representatives.
The example showed the number one in a box next to Mr Oakeshott’s name and asterisks in boxes next to other candidates.
If voters copied the how to vote card exact, their vote would be considered informal because they had not numbered the boxes one to eight.
The controversy may have cost Mr Oakshott his seat and he is expected to lose Cowper to Pat Conaghan of the Nationals by 57 per cent.
But Mr Oakeshott has defended the cards despite being criticised by Channel Seven’s election panel.
“We made a decision as a campaign team. Very much the preferences are the community’s and we’re confident that was well received,” he said.
“We’ll keep an eye on the informal votes in the area and compare them the others.
“In the end we were chasing a number one next to our name and for everyone else to fill out one to eight in the order they wanted.”
Mr Oakeshott told the panel it was the risk the his campaign team took and they respected the intelligence of voters.
“We designed a card that we think does exactly that so we’ll wait and see what happens, if it blows up, it blows up,” he said.
“But we think our voters can count to eight and we respect our voters to work out how to go from two to eight.”
Channel Seven news presenter Michael Usher hit back at Mr Oakeshott, telling him it’s likely his how to vote card backfired.
“The Urunga booth in 2016 had 91 informal votes, today it’s 133 so far. I’d suggest to you that your ballot paper has really backfired,” he said.
Mr Oakeshott claimed it wasn’t the first time these types of how to vote cards had been used.
“We chose this time around to respect the independence of the voter. If the informal vote is high then a lesson learnt,” he said.
Mr Oakeshott is up against the Nationals candidate Pat Conaghan after Luke Hartsuyker retired.
With 13 per cent of the vote counted at 7.45pm on Saturday night, Mr Conaghan was ahead 58 to 42 per cent on a two-party preferred basis.
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