The Australian Electoral Commission has called for “civility” in the last week of the voice referendum campaign, with polling booth staff being filmed without their consent and subjected to false accusations from angry voters.
As the AEC battles an increasing level of misinformation and disinformation, conspiracy theories and false claims the referendum is rigged are circulating online and crossing into real life at the booths.
Evan Ekin-Smyth, the AEC’s media and digital engagement director, said the “vast majority” of people were well behaved when they come to vote. There had been some issues between campaigners from opposing sides or confrontations with voters outside the booths, he said.
“We talk to the federal police and state and territory police every single time in the lead-up to federal elections, and we’ve done that [with the referendum],” he said.
“There’s a bit of a different environment around the referendum in terms of the online environment and the situation we’re seeing there.
“We’re urging people as always to be civil. Australia has a really proud history of peaceful, trusted elections.”
There have been reports of people filming electoral workers without their permission, he said.
Last year the AEC asked TikTok and YouTube to remove footage of staff taken without their consent during the 2022 election campaign.
People posted images and videos of staff going about their jobs, and falsely accused them of electoral fraud.
It happened again at the March election in New South Wales.
The AEC has been pushing Twitter to remove posts that it says incite violence against staff, such as one that said “you pack of dogs will have your day”, and promote disinformation about electoral processes.
Campaigners told Guardian Australia last week that voters were raising concerns about voting with a pencil instead of a pen, referring to a conspiracy theory that someone would change their vote after they had cast it.
Ekin-Smyth said some campaigners had been handing out pens outside booths.
The AEC has confirmed people are welcome to take their own pens in, while they offer pencils because they don’t smudge, don’t run out, and are more reliable.
The AEC commissioner, Tom Rogers, said in September there had been an increase in threats, including death threats against staff, as well as an increase in misinformation.
Some of it was “tinfoil-hat-wearing, bonkers-mad conspiracy theories such as us using Dominion voting machines”, he said, referring to claims from the former US president Donald Trump, among others, about electoral fraud.
Other unfounded claims revolve around the impact of people using ticks and crosses, a claim which was bolstered by the opposition leader, Peter Dutton.
The AEC urges people to write either the word “yes” or “no”. Under the law, ticks can be counted as a yes, while crosses are not generally counted as a no, as they can be ambiguous.
About half of Australia’s population is set to vote before the official polling day on 14 October, while the rest should turn up on the day.
Rogers told Senate estimates in May that the best way to deal with disinformation and misinformation was “before the event”.
“The term people use is ‘pre-bunking’,” he said. “It’s about inoculating citizens against misinformation and disinformation.
“It’s one of the reasons why we’ve run a really successful, large-scale campaign called Stop and Consider.”
The campaign educates people about common tactics used to spread false claims and manipulate people.
