The legitimacy of two Victorian local elections has been called into question after a large number of duplicate votes were detected in mailed ballots.

The suspicious number of multiple returns – defined as more than one postal packet returned by a single voter, or claiming to be from a single voter – was reported in the Whittlesea Town Council, Lalor Ward and Town Council elections by Knox, Baird Ward.

Electoral Commissioner Sven Bluemmel said the numbers were high enough that the election results could have been impacted, and he would address the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) today to assess the validity of the results .

The situation was reported to Victoria Police and the Local Government Inspectorate.

“There are serious breaches in the Local Government Act for interfering in elections,” Mr Bluemmel said.

He said the unusually high number of multiple returns could indicate mail-in ballot tampering.

“Those who seek to subvert our electoral process will face consequences. We will detect your efforts and you will be arrested,” he said.

Mr. Bluemmel was unable to say which candidates in the election might have benefited from illegitimate votes.

“It’s a matter of investigation, we just don’t know, and of course the ballet is secret, so we just don’t have that investigative knowledge at the moment.

Mr. Bluemmel was unable to say how many fraudulent votes may have been counted.

In the Lalor district, only 39 votes separated the winner, Stevan Kozmevski, and runner-up Ellen McNaught.

The results in Baird Ward were less close, with provisional results giving Peter Lockwood 5,222 votes to runner-up Yvonne Allred’s 4,845, a margin of 377.

“It is clear that the election results could have been affected,” Mr. Bluemell said.

Mr. Bluemmel said there was no indication that the situations in the Lalor and Baird neighborhoods were linked.

He said he was proud of the VEC teams who were able to identify the irregularities, and said that this identification had been possible thanks to the new guarantees put in place four years ago.

How were the irregularities detected?

Mr Bluemmel said the high number of multiple returns was detected after voting closed on Friday October 25.

“For these precincts, we discovered irregularities in voter reporting between the ballet records returned by voters from the first mailing of the ballets and the replacement ballet records that claim to have been completed and returned by the same voters. “

There were 128 suspicious returns for the Lalor district and 61 suspicious returns for the elections in the Baird district.

There were 15,823 registered voters in Lalor ward, with 12,301 votes counted in total.

In Baird, there were 12,441 registered voters in the Baird precinct and 10,067 votes counted in total.

Mr. Bluemmel assured legitimate voters that their votes would be counted.

Lalor Ward’s election was subject to a full recount yesterday morning and the election was declared Tuesday evening.

In the Baird district, the results were announced Monday.

The legislation did not allow elections to be suspended due to suspicious votes.

Knox City Council chief executive Bruce Dobson said the results would stand until VCAT made an alternative decision.

Whittlesea Town Council has been contacted for comment.