No tolerance for 'fruit loop' politicians in federal election: AEC Tom Rogers

Robust integrity measures and a healthy nationwide trust in strong democratic systems should leave Australians confident the election is in good hands, electoral commissioner Tom Rogers said.

The Australian Electoral Commission is preparing for all possibilities and remains on stand-by as it prepares to undertake the most expensive federal election to date in the coming months.

It will also mark the first federal election to be held during the COVID-19 pandemic when it is called ahead of the May 21 deadline this year.

But there are concerns mis- and disinformation tactics, such as questioning the counting and storing of postal and polling day votes, could be imported from overseas in the upcoming federal election.

In late 2020, former US president Donald Trump unleashed a number of unsubstantiated claims after counting began for the 2020 US Presidential election.

The controversial Republican figure made unsupported allegations the opposing Democrat party had rigged the election and were dumping mail-in votes in order to claim the presidency.

Mr Rogers said he hoped Australian candidates, and incumbent parliamentarians, would continue a tradition of respecting the system, rather than undermining it.

"If some fruit loop picked up what occurred in some overseas countries and tried that here, that would be incredibly disappointing," he told The Canberra Times in a briefing.

"I, frankly, think it's disgraceful ... it's absolutely despicable and unbelievably poor form if any candidate does that.

"It would fundamentally change the nature of Australian elections where everyone accepts the result."

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The electoral commission head said there were hundreds of thousands of polling officials, who were never left alone with ballot papers, and every single vote was subject to a scrutineering process.

The Court of Disputed Returns is also in a position to assess the merits of disputed election results and had already dealt with 50 claims over its time.

The former US president's mail-in "voting fraud" claims are believed to have contributed to the deadly siege on the Capitol during President Joe Biden's certification in January the following year, which resulted in five deaths.

Most government and opposition MPs and senators in Australia condemned Mr Trump's claims, and the subsequent violent actions of his supporters at the Capitol.

But Liberal MP George Christensen and his former Liberal colleague, now United Australia Party leader, Craig Kelly expressed support for Mr Trump's crusade for a voting recount and shared debunked articles that the Capitol attack was undertaken by left-wing protestors.

Scepticism over election results delivered through Australia's democratic process has happened before.

During the 2013 federal election, then-Palmer Australia Party leader Clive Palmer filed an unsuccessful court injunction against the electoral commission to stop counting votes at two Fairfax polling booths in a close fight for a seat in the House of Representatives.

The billionaire mining businessman eventually won the seat by less than 100 votes after he challenged thousands of ballots to a recount.

Mr Rogers said it was important Australians defended the integrity of the election against any false or unsubstantiated claims made by candidates or politicians.

The electoral commission was there to ensure a fair election and had no interested in the winners and losers, he added.

"We've got a bunch of disinterested bureaucrats who run [the election]," he said.

"I mean, disinterested, not uninterested. I'm using that deliberately. We love the process. We don't care about the outcome.

"We've got to, as Australians, I think we've got to try and defend that as much as possible."

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