The AEC said there was also concern about the timeliness of applications getting to the AEC.

How to vote — or something more?

A report from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters on the 2022 election found voters who registered for postal voting using these types of forms could have had their data “harvested” by the party prior to their application being forwarded to the AEC, who is responsible to distributing postal vote papers ahead of election day.

A report from the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters found the postal vote process had become “unfair and confusing to a number of voters”. Source: SBS News

The 2023 report said the data collected may be used for current or future communications.

SBS News has also contacted the Liberal Party for comment.

Some mailouts resembling official AEC material

In one case, a separate voting pamphlet included inside is printed in grey ink, with just one sentence in small writing indicating the voting pamphlet is authorised by the Liberal Party.

Experts, including Bill Browne at The Australia Institute, are concerned about the design of some postal vote applications distributed by political parties. Source: SBS News

In some instances, hotline numbers listed on these forms connect voters directly to a political candidate’s office rather than an independent election authority.

“If political parties are deliberately separating these materials from their own branding, they’re doing so for a purpose — and that’s presumably to create the impression, at least among some recipients, that this material is more official or authorised than it truly is,” he said.

“There are also privacy concerns — people worry that applications being returned to a political party might not be faithfully passed onto the AEC,” he said, adding that the committee recommended the law be changed so postal vote applications are sent straight to the AEC.

“It’s the very basics we might expect from a postal vote system, so there’s no doubt votes are being processed correctly and without privacy or security concerns,” Browne said.

What should I do if I receive these letters?

“We have a very good independent Australian Electoral Commission. It’s one of the great strengths of Australian democracy … I’d always recommend heading straight to the AEC website and researching how to vote there, applying for a postal vote through the AEC and using that as the first port of call rather than material in the mailbox,” he said.