INDEPENDENT Candidate for Cowper, Carolyn Heise, is one of a number of people urging residents to be wary of political parties sending them postal vote applications.

“A lot of people have been asking me this week why they were receiving unsolicited postal vote application material in the mail,” said Ms Heise.

Advertise with News of The Area today.
It’s worth it for your business.
Message us.
Phone us – (02) 4981 8882.
Email us – media@newsofthearea.com.au

“This is nothing more than a data mining exercise by the main parties, because, while the postal vote application is legal and official, the return address sends the document with all your personal information to one of the major parties.

“They will then extract your personal information and enter it into their data bank before forwarding your postal vote application to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC).

“Once the major parties have your personal information they will target you with party political information to entice you to vote for their candidate.

“It is not an act of generosity.

“It is a tactic to get your personal information for them to use for their party political benefit.”

Ms Heise says people who want to apply for a postal vote should contact the AEC directly.

The AEC agrees, telling people via social media that while the political parties are not breaking the law, it would prefer that voters contact it directly for postal vote applications.

The Electoral Commissioner, Tom Rogers, has said that the practice is misleading, and is encouraging the major parties to stop.

By Andrew VIVIAN