Rejected electoral ballots are in the spotlight, after some polling centres recorded high numbers of invalid votes.
The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) will review its evaluation process for “informal votes” — ballots that aren’t counted because they weren’t filled out correctly.
At the 2025 federal election, around 5.6% of all votes cast were rejected, slightly higher than the 2022 election.
Some polling booths also recorded higher informal votes compared with previous elections.
Voting rules
Voting rules for the two houses of Parliament are different.
The House of Representatives (lower house) MPs are elected on a ballot paper where all candidates need to be ranked according to preference.
For example, if there are 10 candidates, all ten boxes need to be filled out 1-10, based on personal choice.
In the Senate, you vote either above or below the line on the ballot paper. There is a minimum number of boxes to fill out for either option.
Informal votes
Informal votes are those that haven’t been filled out correctly. This could include not filling out the ballot paper correctly by not numbering enough boxes.
An ‘informal’ vote is rejected by the AEC during a vote count, and doesn’t contribute to an overall tally.
At the 2025 election, the rate of informal votes (5.6%) was similar to the previous election (5.2%). The seat of Werriwa in south-west Sydney recorded the highest rate of informal votes at this election, with 17.3%.
Cowper
Your contribution ensures The Daily Aus can continue doing the work you love.
I want to give $10 monthly to help TDA keep doing the news.
Your account details:
In the seat of Cowper on NSW’s Mid North Coast, one polling centre recorded around 50 informal votes and 61 formal votes.
It was a 38% rise in informal votes at the booth compared to the 2022 election.
Locals have told the ABC they were instructed to only vote 1-6 for the House of Representatives, instead of ranking all 11 candidates.
In a statement, the AEC confirmed it’s investigating the matter, while noting any discrepancy wouldn’t have been enough to change the result.
Hospital teams
The AEC sends special teams to collect votes from hospitals, aged care facilities, and other healthcare settings where patients are required to stay overnight.
In the regional South Australian seat of Grey, one hospital team recorded a 16% rise, while another saw a 20% jump in informal votes.
There was a 51% rise in the rate of rejected ballots for a special hospital team in Lyons, a regional seat in central-east Tasmania.
AEC review
The AEC has now vowed to review informal voting practices at the 2025 election, although it’s not indicated yet how the study will be carried out.
In a statement to TDA, an AEC spokesperson said: “We are hopeful that its results will help improve our voter education work for future federal elections.”
After the 2016 election, where there was a shakeup in the Senate voting system, the AEC reviewed informal votes. It found there was confusion about the differences between voting in the lower and upper houses.
