The Victorian Electoral Commission has referred allegations of suspected postal vote tampering in two Melbourne council elections to police.
The VEC on Wednesday afternoon said it had detected a high number of multiple returned votes in Knox city council, in Melbourne’s east, and Whittlesea city council – which was overseen by administrators between 2020 and 2024 after governance issues, in Melbourne’s north, after voting closed in the state’s council elections last month.
Both elections have been declared by the VEC and on Wednesday it requested the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Vcat) review the results in Whittlesea’s Lalor ward and Knox’s Baird ward. Peter Lockwood won Baird ward on a margin of 1.87% while Stevan Kozmevski secured a victory in Lalor on a 0.16% margin. There is no suggestions of wrongdoing by either candidate.
Vcat will now determine the validity of the election and decide whether a new poll is necessary.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
The Victorian electoral commissioner, Sven Bluemmel, said the suspected interference was a “serious matter with significant penalties”. The maximum penalty for the alleged offence is five years’ imprisonment and/or up to $99,000 in fines.
Speaking to reporters, he said he was “very disappointed” over the alleged tampering.
“We take it extremely seriously,” he said.
He said some of the suspected fraudulent votes were included in the count.
“It depends on whether they came in before the close of voting or after the close of voting. Some may have been admitted for the count, some not,” he said.
Bluemmel said 128 ballots in Whittlesea’s Lalor ward and 61 Knox’s Baird ward were detected as suspicious returns.
He said after a similar incident in 2020, which led to a former Merri-bek councillor later pleading guilty to vote tampering, the VEC had made “further safeguards” and monitoring tools.
“Our proactive monitoring identified this and identified it quickly,” he said.
The VEC has also referred the alleged matter to the Local Government Inspectorate for an investigation into alleged electoral offences.
The chief municipal inspector, Michael Stefanovic, said the LGI would work with the VEC to establish the nature of the matter and liaise with Victoria police regarding the appropriate response.
Bluemmel said the VEC first referred the Lalor ward matter to the LGI on 30 October and police on 1 November. For Knox, the commission made referrals to the LGI on 6 November and to police on 7 November.
The VEC said by law it was required to declare the election result for both wards before it could make a referral to the Vcat.
In a statement, the VEC said it has “detected higher rates of multiple ballot paper envelopes returned appearing to be from the same voters in both these wards following the close of voting”.
“As required by law, the voter declarations on each multiple return were carefully examined. A number of multiple returns were set aside as rejected after comparison with the declarations from replacement ballot paper envelopes. This highlighted a pattern of irregularities,” the VEC said.
Victoria’s minister for local government, Melissa Horne, said it was a “serious matter”.
“Any instance of voter fraud is unacceptable, erodes community trust and diminishes the institutions where it has taken place,” she said.
The opposition leader, John Pesutto, said he was “concerned about any potential threat to the integrity” of the electoral system. He said he would work with the government to ensure “every step is put in place to scrutinise the processes of election and make sure they are free, fair and accurate”.
