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)
Region	Formal	Informal	Total	Updated	Difference
Eastern Metropolitan	375947	12179	388126	12-12-2006 17:32	0
Eastern Victoria	379201	12625	391826	12-12-2006 18:55	0
Northern Metropolitan	360149	21730	381879	14-12-2006 06:19	-6454
Northern Victoria	365391	15426	380817	12-12-2006 19:03	0
South Eastern Metropolitan	365547	20200	385747	12-12-2006 18:23	0
Southern Metropolitan	361805	11420	373225	12-12-2006 19:45	0
Western Metropolitan	374411	25075	399486	14-12-2006 03:57	-478
Western Victoria	394478	14588	409066	14-12-2006 05:03	268
Summary of upper house provisional count statistics
(published December 12, 2006 19:45)
Region	Formal	Informal	Total
Eastern Metropolitan	375947	12179	388126	12-12-2006 17:32
Eastern Victoria	379201	12625	391826	12-12-2006 18:55
Northern Metropolitan	366605	21728	388333	12-12-2006 18:22
Northern Victoria	365391	15426	380817	12-12-2006 19:03
South Eastern Metropolitan	365547	20200	385747	12-12-2006 18:23
Southern Metropolitan	361805	11420	373225	12-12-2006 19:45
Western Metropolitan	374982	24981	399964	12-12-2006 18:03
Western Victoria	394556	14242	408798	12-12-2006 17:31
Summary of upper house count statistics
(published December 12, 2006 16:49)
Region	Formal	Informal	Total
Eastern Metropolitan	375390	12679	388069		-57
Eastern Victoria	378374	13030	391404		-422
Northern Metropolitan	358877	22496	381373		-6960
Northern Victoria	363962	16654	380616		-201
South Eastern Metropolitan	363814	21640	385454		-293
Southern Metropolitan	360202	13464	373666		441
Western Metropolitan	373842	25773	399615		-349
Western Victoria	392893	15590	408483		-315
Summary of lower house statistics
(published December 12, 2006 16:49)
Region	Formal	Informal	Total
Eastern Metropolitan	372625	15588	388213		87
Eastern Victoria	375024	16382	391406		-420
Northern Metropolitan	362715	20475	383190		-5143
Northern Victoria	365794	15520	381314		497
South Eastern Metropolitan	366008	19631	385639		-108
Southern Metropolitan	361292	12378	373670		445
Western Metropolitan	372518	25361	397879		-2085
Western Victoria	391684	16550	408234		-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.

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