Troubled waters in Wagga Council after allegations of a 'rigged vote' at the first meeting

The newly elected Wagga City Council appears to have steered into choppy waters in the wake of this week’s inaugural meeting.

Councillor Richard Foley is back for a second term and has been making waves about alleged irregularities in Monday’s vote to elect a new board for the Riverina Water County Council.

“I call it, at the very least, improper, or a very extreme form of caucusing. Others would call it voter manipulation,” he said.

“I don’t think it would pass the pub test for the ordinary Aussie.”

Eight councillors submitted their preferences for five paid positions in a secret ballot in the council chamber, with previous chairman Tim Koschel, Deputy Mayor Georgie Davies, first-time councillor Alanna Condron, Mayor Dallas Tout and Cr Jenny McKinnon selected.

Cr Foley was one of three contenders who missed out and he said that something “just didn’t sit right about how quickly it was all done”.

The following day, he contacted general manager Peter Thompson and asked to inspect the ballots; something that is permitted within 24 hours of the vote.

To his surprise, each of the ballots bore the name of the voting councillor and he alleges that five of them had listed their preferences in an identical sequence.

“The chances of that happening spontaneously is a mathematical impossibility,” he said.

“If multiple candidates coordinate their votes in an identical sequence, I believe it undermines the principle of being anonymous.

“Even though individual ballots with our names on them may remain physically anonymous, such coordination, in my eyes, exposes a pattern that compromises the secrecy of the ballot, and I believe it’s a strategic manipulation of the ballot.”

Mr Thompson confirmed that he met with a councillor to review the ballot papers and only realised in the moment that the names of each councillor were visible.

“The name of each councillor should not have been on a ballot paper,” Mr Thompson conceded, but maintained that it did not impact the vote’s outcome.

“The councillor was able to see the name of each councillor on the voting paper, which should not have been the case. This was inadvertent.

“The vote still met the requirement of a secret vote as no councillor was aware of how another councillor was voting at the time.”

Before distributing the ballots during Monday night’s meeting, Mr Thomson had noted that “we had prepared ballot papers with every councillor’s name” and it was clear that the papers were being handed out accordingly.

Cr Foley said he followed up with the general manager to express his concern that the unredacted names could nullify the vote, and also followed up with the Office of Local Government about the issue of coordinated voting.

“I sent a very detailed email off with a list of questions on Thursday and I spoke with someone [on Friday] but I still don’t have anything in writing,” he confirmed.

“Apparently, it’s able to be done under the current rules or regulations governing county council elections.

“It might be above board according to these bureaucrats, but I think most ordinary Australians would think that it shouldn’t be and, in my view, it should be something that should be tightened up.”

Cr Tim Koschel received the lion’s share of the votes in the secret ballot and is hoping to return as chairman of the Riverina Water County Council. He said it was no secret that councillors collaborate ahead of a vote.

“My role as ex-chair of Riverina Water, and hopefully the new chair of Riverina Water, is to ensure that the right people are on the board to make Riverina Water successful,” he said.

“A group of people spoke to me during the process. There was a group vote, but not every ballot paper would have been the same.

“There was nothing illegal about what we did, and I think it’s just sour grapes from somebody that missed out on the board.”

Cr Koschel then went a step further to declare that he and former councillor Mick Henderson had voted with Cr Foley as a group at the last board election.

“Richard formed a bloc vote with Mick and myself in the last council but it didn’t work,” he said.

“So for him to come out and say this is bulls–t when he’s done it himself in the past.”

Mr Henderson confirmed to Region that the three councillors had arranged to vote together at the last election; a claim Cr Foley rejects.

“There was caucusing for support, yes, but there wasn’t a coordinated effort across the board with five individuals,” he said.

“The reality is we’re talking about this matter and how this was conducted with the five individuals.”

Pressed by Region on whether he had done the same thing “with a group of three” individuals, Cr Foley responded with a flat “No”.

As for what happens next, Cr Foley hopes to receive a written reply from the Office of Local Government before considering his next steps.

“There’s a grey area here and it needs to be determined by the courts or the legislators,” he said.

“We don’t want to have a situation where, if this is repeated, then we end up having an injunction placed over Riverina Water until it’s resolved because that could take up to 12 months.”

Watch this space.