The 1370 lost ballot papers that affected the result of the WA Senate recount could have been lost in transit, says Mick Keelty, the former federal police commissioner tasked with finding out what went wrong.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the five bundles of votes were lost some time between Sunday September 8, the day after the election, and the beginning of the recount on October 17.
Mr Keelty said his inquiry will investigate whether the ballots were lost while being transported to the Australian Electoral Commission's storage warehouse in Welshpool in Perth's east, or subsequently to the recount centre in central Perth.
But Mr Keelty said the missing ballots may never be found, adding that his job is to make recommendations to help ensure that the farce is not repeated.
"We could find them, but it seems highly unusual that they haven’t turned up yet. A thorough search has been conducted," he said.
Mr Keelty added that "there is no indication of any corruption or any corrupt conduct by anybody", although it is too early to rule anything in or out.
The votes were counted twice: once at polling booths on election night, and again the following night at divisional returning centres in the electorates of Pearce and Forrest.
But by the time the recount began, they were missing. Exhaustive searches at the warehouse and counting centre drew a blank.
"Clearly we know that on election night and the following Sunday that the votes were still there. Somewhere between that day and the warehouse, or somewhere between the warehouse and the recount centre, those votes went missing," Mr Keelty said.
He said he would aim to establish whether the missing votes ever made it to the warehouse.
Mr Keelty said he would speak to courier company Toll IPEC, which transports votes on behalf of the AEC.
The pallets in which the votes were transported were not fully wrapped in cellophane, raising the possibility that several boxes of votes could have been shaken loose in transit.
But Mr Keelty said there was some doubt over whether the boxes, which typically weigh eight kilograms, could be easily dislodged.
Toll Group spokesman Christopher Whitefield confirmed that the company has been in contact with Mr Keelty's investigation, but would not comment on how ballot papers were transported.
Mr Keelty said the votes were probably lost in separate incidents. Pearce, where 1139 votes went missing, is north-east of Perth, whereas Forrest, where the remaining 231 were lost, is to the south.
He said he was also investigating the possibility of 'cross-contamination' at the counting centre, which was also being used to count votes in last month's WA local government election.
He urged anyone with information about what happened to share it with him.
The fate of the six Senate seats involved in the election now rests with the Court of Disputed Returns, which is set to consider any appeals against the declared result.
Those appeals seem inevitable, given the revelation that the recount could have been decided by just one vote if the lost ballots had been included.
But Mr Keelty said the fate of the votes is academic because the writs have already been returned.
"In that sense, locating the votes today won’t make any difference to the outcome unless the Court of Disputed Returns makes a direction in relation to that," he said.
"But what it will do is enable us to work out what went wrong."
Mr Keelty will spend this week in Perth, and says he hopes to report his findings to the AEC by the end of next week.
