Aaron Brown closes gap to 148 votes

WEIRDER and weirder! The vote count in the tightly contested seat of Bass actually went backwards today, Friday, December 2, from 77.75% of votes counted on Wednesday to 75.73% of votes counted more than two days later… go figure.

Even on less votes counted though, from a reported 38,865 total votes counted at 11.30am on Wednesday, November 30 down to 37,853 total votes counted by 5.38pm on Friday; the Victorian Electoral Commission has the lead by the Labor incumbent Jordan Crugnale cut from 233 on Wednesday, to 148 at the end of the day on Friday.

But there have been no votes added to the count since 11.30am on Wednesday.

A spokesman for the VEC offered some explanation for the apparently inexplicable  – how the number of votes counted could actually go backwards after more than two days.

“Today we will be publishing rechecked results which may result in minor variations from the primary results currently published for districts.”

They may be minor variations but there are major outcomes at stake.

But, how did the number of votes counted go backwards?

We don’t know unless the “rechecking” established they actually had more than 1000 fewer votes than they thought they had last Wednesday.

One thousand… that’s a lot of votes, out of a possible 49,984 on the electoral roll to miscount.

It’s also interesting to note that while the total number of votes counted went backwards, the number of informals, that is votes ruled out of the count because they either weren’t filled out properly, or they weren’t filled out at all, went up by almost 300 votes; that’s a lot.

On Wednesday, November 30, the number of informals was put at 2387 (6.14%), now it’s 2656 (7.02%).

Whatever the situation: Jordan Crugnale (Labor) 19,066 votes leads Aaron Brown (Liberals) 18,918 on a two-candidate preferred basis by 148 votes.

Whatever happens in the Bass Electorate count now, there’s almost certain to be calls for a total recount and an investigation into how many polling booths ran out of ballot papers and how many people, intending to vote, were turned away.

VEC addresses lack of ballots

The Sentinel-Times asked the VEC to address the concerns that ballot papers ran out at upwards of seven voting centres in Bass including Corinella, Bass, Koo Wee Rup, Newhaven, Catani, Bayles and Grantville.

• Question: Can you confirm that ballot papers ran out at these 7 locations? How many others of the 26 polling places in Bass ran out of ballot papers?
• VEC: We can confirm that ballot papers were running low at the locations that you have listed. It is an established operational practice to provide additional ballots to voting centres where stock on hand is running low. We would again repeat that all voters were provided with the opportunity to vote – either by waiting for additional ballot packs, being invited to return at a later time, or being invited to vote at another voting centre. In some locations, voters were provided with blank ballots, with candidates’ names handwritten on the ballot by election officials.
• Question: Can you say categorically that all those who arrived at these locations and were unable to vote, left their names?
• VEC: It is not possible to state this categorically – if an elector chose to leave the queue without leaving their name with the election officials or waiting for additional ballot papers to arrive, it would not have been possible for our election officials to record this. However, it’s worth remembering that if some electors did this, they may have returned at a later time to cast their vote, or cast their vote at another location, so it cannot be assumed that they did not vote at all. We are in the process of conducting rechecks in Bass District and reconciling material that was received back to the election office after election night. In the fullness of time we will be able to provide the exact number of voters who did not wish to wait for replacement ballots to arrive and instead provided their details to election staff to ensure they would not be fined, but as mentioned, this figure is very small.

The race in Bass is not the closest in the State.

That award goes to the neighbouring seat of Pakenham where David Farrelly (Liberals) and Emma Vulin (Labor) are absolutely locked together on 18,267 votes each (two candidate preferred).

A total of 39,150 votes out of a possible 48,014 or 81.54% have been counted in Pakenham, with 2804 informal (7.16%), so Pakenham is closing in on the final outcome.

There could still be upwards of 6000 absentee and postal votes to arrive in Bass, meaning the victory is still anyone’s.

On Saturday, December 3, the VEC tells us the counting will continue, hopefully not going backwards this time.

"From tomorrow, absent votes will be added to the results tallies," said the VEC.