Victoria's Liberal Party registered dead member John Stokes and former members Nicholas Healey and John Ternel as preselectors for the key seat of Ripon, a leaked spreadsheet obtained shows, raising governance and fraud risk concerns in a seat the party needs to win back at November's state election.
Only current, eligible members are meant to vote in a preselection, the internal party ballot that decides who runs as the party's candidate. The Ripon spreadsheet shows at least three people registered to vote were ineligible, according to the ABC.
Ripon is a regional Victorian electorate taking in Ararat and Clunes, held by Labor's Martha Haylett on a margin of 2.7% after she took it off the Liberals in 2022. Liberal candidate Megan Read, a Skipton farmer preselected at the June convention, and Ararat councillor Jo Armstrong for the Nationals have already started campaigning across the seat.
John Stokes died in September. Candidates kept ringing for his vote
Mr Stokes died in September last year, yet he was still registered as a Ripon preselector. His wife, Arvon, told the ABC the phone rang constantly ahead of the June vote as prospective candidates chased his support.
"I'm not a member," she said.
Mrs Stokes said she'd raised it with federal Liberal MP Dan Tehan, a family friend, who she said was "horrified" and "not happy at all". Mr Tehan referred questions to the Liberal Party, which didn't answer them but issued a short statement.
"Following the withdrawal of a candidate a new preselection was held in June this year," a Liberal Party spokesperson said.
John Ternel quit, was declared dead by his own party, then registered to vote anyway
Mr Ternel's case is stranger still. It was reported in May that the Liberal Party falsely announced he'd died after he resigned his membership.
Despite that, the party emailed him last month to say he'd "been selected to be a delegate to attend the Ripon Preselection Convention" at the Avoca Turf Club on 24 June. He didn't respond, yet within the hour he was confirmed as a registered preselector, followed by candidate brochures and at least three phone calls, he told the ABC.
Mr Ternel told the ABC it was well known he'd left the party. "When I was talking to the candidates, they said, 'Aren't you the guy who died?'" he said.
Mr Healey, the third ineligible name, was listed with "TRUE" under eligible and "Accepted" under RSVP, the ABC reported.
"Alarm bells started to ring": insiders and a governance expert warn of fraud risk
The party's first pick, Creswick's Andrew Kilmartin, withdrew for health reasons in late December and the preselection had to be re-run, The Weekly Advertiser reported in January. A Liberal source close to the campaign told the ABC the process cost six months, that eligible members were told they couldn't vote, and that they held concerns about the integrity of preselections across the state.
A person close to the preselection told the ABC that a dead man had allegedly been marked down as coming to vote while two others weren't party members at all. "Alarm bells started to ring," they said.
Deakin University Associate Professor and former Victorian Labor MP Ken Coghill said inaccurate lists reflected poor party governance, and that a list like Ripon's "leaves it open to the risk of fraudulent process".
Labor holds Ripon by 2.7% while Liberal members walk and One Nation rises
The bungle lands with the party already bleeding members, with high profile defections including Colleen Harkin quitting for One Nation as the minor party climbs in the polls. Mr Ternel himself told the ABC in May he was considering joining One Nation, and said more than 20 Liberal members had rung him in a day asking about the party, with some wanting a good word put in. One Nation plans to run candidates in every seat in November, and quitting Liberals point to its 24.5% vote at the Nepean by-election as proof the base is on the move. It hasn't yet announced its candidate for Ripon.
Victorians go to the polls on 28 November.
