New South Wales Supreme Court Justice Robert Beech-Jones announced his ruling that thousands of voters will vote again after the online voting system crashed allegedly due to the increased volume of voters using the voting system, local news reported.
The electoral commission’s system in NSW, iVote, went down last December.
“The failure of the iVote system, resulting in fresh elections, is likely to cause a loss of faith in the electoral process, Justice Beech-Jones said on Friday’s ruling.
Voting via iVote is currently unavailable.
We’re investigating the issue and will resolve it as soon as possible.
We regret any inconvenience caused. pic.twitter.com/Rn8YqXIxnu
— NSW Electoral Commission (@NSWElectoralCom) December 3, 2021
ABC.au reported:
Tens of thousands of voters in New South Wales will be forced back to the polls after the Electoral Commission’s online voting system crashed at the local government elections in December.
The commission applied to the Supreme Court to scrap the results in Kempsey, Singleton and Shellharbour Ward A “to protect the integrity of the electoral system”.
In delivering his judgement on Thursday afternoon, Justice Robert Beech-Jones declared the results in the three council areas void.
“The primary consideration is the interest of the electorate,” Justice Beech-Jones said.
“The cost, stress and inconvenience to the elected cannot be elevated above the electorates’ interest in having a council elected in accordance with the Local Government Act.”
He told the court even though the number of voters who were unable to vote was small their omission had real potential to change the results in all three councils.
“With reluctance, I find that because the system of election for the three councils is proportional representation, it is necessary to declare all of the councillors’ elections void.
“Had the court only declared one councillor position void then the result would be a by-election using the optional preferential system of voting which would undermine the manifest purpose of the proportional voting scheme of the Local Government Act,” he said.
No ruling was made on who will bear the costs of the failure with additional submissions to be made next month.
Analysis commissioned by the NSW Electoral Commission found 34 voters in Kempsey, 55 in Singleton and 54 in Shellharbour who attempted to use the iVote system were prevented from casting their vote.
During a two-day hearing in February, several councillors told the court of the “reputational damage” caused by the proceedings while some said they would not run again in the event the result was thrown out.
“At present, the successful and unsuccessful candidates will unfairly bear the burden of the failure of the iVote system that was administered by the Electoral Commissioner,” Justice Beech-Jones said.
“The failure of the iVote system, resulting in fresh elections, is likely to cause a loss of faith in the electoral process.
“That loss of faith will only be exacerbated if candidates cannot nominate because they cannot recover some of the resources expected in the December 2021 election,” he said.
Meanwhile in the United States, since the 2020 Election, not one single independent, objective and complete audit of the Dominion machines used in the 2020 Election has taken place despite reports of irregularities.
Dominion voting machines and others were used across the country in the 2020 election, not in all states but in many. But these machines have not been completely audited by independent and objective experts at any location since the 2020 Election.
Read the rest here: OUTRAGE: To Date Not One Single Independent, Objective and Complete Audit of Dominion Voting Machines Used in the 2020 Election Has Taken Place
