Media Release 2001: McEwen Electoral Roll Stands up to Scrutiny

Updated: 22 September 2010

10 August 2001

In a media release issued on 21 June 2001 Mrs Fran Bailey claimed that there were indications of a significant number of roll irregularities in the Division of McEwen.

Mrs Bailey's claims related to some of her official mail being marked 'Return To Sender', addresses at which there appeared to be too many electors enrolled and some other postal address anomalies. Mrs Bailey claimed that there was an indication of possible "roll stacking".

The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) conducted an investigation of this matter during July. The investigation did not find any evidence of "roll stacking" in the Division of McEwen. Rather than uncovering any evidence of enrolment fraud, the investigation established that the Continuous Roll Updating (CRU) program, implemented by the AEC in recent years, is very effective in maintaining and improving the accuracy and integrity of the Electoral Roll.

The investigation revealed that the fact that Mrs Bailey had not used the latest available electoral information for her mail outs contributed significantly to her concerns. Even if the most recent electoral information had been used for the mail out, electors are continually moving and this means that the electoral roll can never be 100 percent up-to-date at a specific time.

The AEC welcomes the opportunity to look into the concerns of Members of Parliament about the state of the electoral roll. The AEC is pleased to report that the roll for the Division of McEwen is in good shape, and Mrs Bailey's concerns about "roll-stacking" are without foundation.

The AEC's CRU program has been in operation for a number of years and is proving very effective in maintaining and improving the accuracy and integrity of the Electoral Roll.

For further background: A full report on the investigation is available from the AEC.

For further information contact:
Anne Bright
Director Information
Ph: 02 6271 4415

Anthea Wilson
Assistant Director Information
Ph: 02 6271 4529