I phoned the very helpful High Court of Australia media people to get a copy of the originating application lodged with the court today by the Australian Electoral Commission - it's $70 bucks worth and I'm having a think about the relative merits of $70 worth of originating application versus $70 worth of nice things for the Czechoslovakian Princess.

The Princess won.

Anyone flush with the $70 who feels inclined to get a copy of the petition and send it our way will be spoken of nicely.

For copies of the petition, please contact the High Court Registry’s public information officer (Canberra) during their business hours. The AEC will not be posting or distributing the document.

Petition lodged with Court of Disputed Returns

The three-person Australian Electoral Commission today authorised the Electoral Commissioner to lodge a petition with the Court of Disputed Returns in respect of the 2013 Western Australian Senate election.

The petition was lodged at approximately 2:30pm AEDT today.

The petition seeks an order from the Court that the WA Senate election of six senators be declared void.

Given the closeness of the margins that favoured the final two declared candidates, the petition is based on the premise that the inability to include 1370 missing ballot papers in the recount of the WA Senate election means that the election was likely to be affected for the purposes of s 362(3) of the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918.

As the matter is now before the Court the AEC will not be making any further comment.

The AEC recently appointed Mr Mick Keelty AO to conduct an inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the missing ballots.  Mr Keelty’s inquiries are continuing.