The Liberal party has apologised to voters for incorrectly suggesting they could apply for a postal vote before writs for the Indigenous voice to parliament referendum had been issued, with the party conceding they will now need to reapply.
The independent MP Kate Chaney has blasted the party for its “blatant disregard” of Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) guidelines and warned that voters may be disenfranchised because they were informed less than two weeks from the 14 October poll.
The Liberal party began offering voters the chance to apply for a postal vote through a party website in the first week of September, despite the fact that writs weren’t issued for the referendum until 11 September.
Labor complained to the AEC that the party “appears to be encouraging Australians to act in a way that is directly contrary to the act” and “actually misleads” Australians about the referendum process.
Guardian Australia has seen two versions of a message sent to voters in the past week – one a letter from South Australian senator Kerrynne Liddle, one an email from the Western Australian Liberal party – explaining that “unfortunately” they “need to re-apply for a postal vote”.
“While the prime minister announced the date of the referendum and launched the Yes campaign on 30 August, he had not actually issued the writ to start the referendum,” it explained.
“We apologise again for the inconvenience, but it is very important that all Australians have their say.”
The WA email seeks to blame the prime minister by claiming it “is not regular practice” to announce the date of the referendum before writs are issued, claiming this is “one more example where Mr [Anthony] Albanese has been tricky with the details of this referendum”.
The government has explained that although the referendum date was announced on 30 August, it waited until the latest date for the writs to maximise time for enrolments.
“Voters must not sign the declaration on the application until after the writ has been issued for a referendum,” AEC guidelines state. “As such, postal vote applications should not be distributed before the issue of writ for a referendum.”
Political parties are exempt from the Privacy Act, allowing them to harvest voter data before sending on the application.
One South Australian voter, Peta, said she applied for a postal vote but after she received the letter from Liddle she called the AEC.
“The AEC didn’t even know I’d applied,” she told Guardian Australia. “It seemed very dodgy … It made me feel sick.”
Chaney said: “This blatant disregard for AEC guidelines by the Liberal party means vulnerable voters have not only given up their personal data but are now scrambling to cast their vote in time.
“This practice shows that political parties are more focused on harvesting data than protecting the integrity of our voting process.”
Chaney warned that the Liberal party “has known for weeks” that it jumped the gun but only told voters “a week before the referendum, when it is too late for many to do anything about it, and then they blame it on the PM for not issuing the writ earlier”.
Chaney said her restoring trust bill “would ban the misuse of the postal voting application process by politicians”. “If political data harvesting is getting in the way of voters actually voting, something has to change.”
A spokesperson for the AEC said it told the public “people needing a postal vote should apply directly through us instead”.
Although it was lawful for parties to distribute postal vote applications earlier, the AEC “cannot accept a postal vote application that was completed [and] dated prior to the issue of the writ for a referendum”, the spokesperson said.
The AEC said it was “individually” contacting people who applied early for a postal vote through a political party “to ensure their application could be amended or that they could vote in another way”.
“Our focus is on making sure people can vote and we’ve been working to ensure that is the case.”
A spokesperson for the Liberal party said it had “long been part of the campaign process that both major parties – and indeed, some independents – offer postal vote applications to voters”.
“Albanese’s delay in issuing the writ made it harder for some Australians to participate in this referendum.
“The Liberal party has communicated with affected voters on how to reapply for a postal vote.”
