Saturday, December 23, 2006

Tully's Tally doesn't Tally

VEC's creative accounting under review

The conduct of the Victorian State Election and its management by the VEC is under review, amidst concern that the VEC tried cutting corners and in the process screwed up big time bringing the State Election and the VEC into disrepute.

Victoria's Chief Commissioner, Steven Tully, is ultimately responsible for the stuff-up and many questions are being asked as to how this monumental stuff-up could occur.

Public Information and results doesn't tally

To help you gain some perspective into the extent of the stuff up take a look at the following summary statistics:



Summary of upper house statistics latest Data

(published December 14, 2006 06:19)
RegionFormalInformalTotalUpdatedDifference
Eastern Metropolitan3759471217938812612-12-2006 17:320
Eastern Victoria3792011262539182612-12-2006 18:550
Northern Metropolitan3601492173038187914-12-2006 06:19-6454
Northern Victoria3653911542638081712-12-2006 19:030
South Eastern Metropolitan3655472020038574712-12-2006 18:230
Southern Metropolitan3618051142037322512-12-2006 19:450
Western Metropolitan3744112507539948614-12-2006 03:57-478
Western Victoria3944781458840906614-12-2006 05:03268
Summary of upper house provisional count statistics
(published December 12, 2006 19:45)
RegionFormalInformalTotal
Eastern Metropolitan3759471217938812612-12-2006 17:32
Eastern Victoria3792011262539182612-12-2006 18:55
Northern Metropolitan3666052172838833312-12-2006 18:22
Northern Victoria3653911542638081712-12-2006 19:03
South Eastern Metropolitan3655472020038574712-12-2006 18:23
Southern Metropolitan3618051142037322512-12-2006 19:45
Western Metropolitan3749822498139996412-12-2006 18:03
Western Victoria3945561424240879812-12-2006 17:31
Summary of upper house count statistics
(published December 12, 2006 16:49)
RegionFormalInformalTotal
Eastern Metropolitan37539012679388069-57
Eastern Victoria37837413030391404-422
Northern Metropolitan35887722496381373-6960
Northern Victoria36396216654380616-201
South Eastern Metropolitan36381421640385454-293
Southern Metropolitan36020213464373666441
Western Metropolitan37384225773399615-349
Western Victoria39289315590408483-315
Summary of lower house statistics
(published December 12, 2006 16:49)
RegionFormalInformalTotal
Eastern Metropolitan3726251558838821387
Eastern Victoria37502416382391406-420
Northern Metropolitan36271520475383190-5143
Northern Victoria36579415520381314497
South Eastern Metropolitan36600819631385639-108
Southern Metropolitan36129212378373670445
Western Metropolitan37251825361397879-2085
Western Victoria39168416550408234-564


At issue here is the number of total votes. Votes have gone missing and have not been accounted for. Normally all the number of ballot all papers are accounted. Each polling place returning officer is required to prepare a tally sheet that outlines exactly how many ballot papers have been issued.

The latest published summary information above shows to what extent the VEC stuffed up - Big time

A voter is supposed to be given two ballot papers, one for the lower-house and one for the upper-house. The number of lower-house ballots should match the number of upper-house ballots. The returning officer then includes this information in their return statements along with the number of ballot papers received and the number of unused ballot papers.

The electoral commission should have tallied up this information and ideally should know in advance prior to the final count how many ballot papers have been issued and how many have been returned. If there is a discrepancy then alarm bells should have rung. BUT this is not what has happened. The total number of ballot papers keep changing and the VEC failed to provide information that would have allowed a proper cross check to occur. (see previous posts on the VEC below).


There are still questions outstanding as to the accuracy of the poll and many believe that the VEC should be required to undertake a second recount in Western Victoria until they have at least managed to obtain the same overall result twice.

Steve Tully is under scrutiny with reports that many politicians, from all sides of the political divide, are not happy in with his performance and the way that he had conducted the election.

As previously reported "Tully's Tally" will come under review when the State Parliamentary Elections committee meets next year.

In the meantime Tully's team will be looking at undertaking some creative accounting to justify this stuff-up and hold on to their job. We think it is time to consider having a single independent professional Electoral Authority with Victoria's Chief Electoral Commissioner under the auspice of the Sate Auditor General and as an executive member of the new Australian Electoral Authority.

More information http://melbcity.topcities.com



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