The court challenge comes just five weeks before Australians vote in the referendum on October 14.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer and United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet have launched a Federal Court bid to force the Australian Electoral Commission to count crosses on Voice referendum ballot papers as a vote against the proposal.
The Electoral Commission has made clear that a tick will be counted as a Yes vote but a cross, which may be ambiguous, will not be counted as a No vote on Voice referendum ballot papers, consistent with legal advice that has been provided for decades.
The AEC has previously made clear that “the formal voting instructions for the referendum are to clearly write either ‘yes’ or ‘no’, in full, in English”. It took aim at misinformation surrounding the vote count and noted that “more than 99 per cent of votes cast at the 1999 federal referendum [on an Australian republic] were formal”.
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