The Australian Electoral Commission is investigating a shit-ton of fake campaign signs that were put up overnight.
According to The Guardian, independent candidates reported hundreds of their posters had been taken down and replaced with doctored copies.
The new posters look very similar to the originals, besides a massive Greens logo featured across many of the fakes. The corflutes also don’t hold any authorisation messages, which are required by the AEC.
Zali Steggall, Sophie Scamps and Georgia Steele are among the affected candidates.
On Facebook, Georgia Steele wrote, “Last night, our corflutes were shredded and stolen, and fake ones were installed in their place. Telephone booths were spray painted too.”
“We are running a positive campaign powered by the community. We won’t be swayed by bullies,” she added.
The fake corflutes falsely suggest that the pictured candidates are affiliated with The Greens.
We don’t know who’s responsible for the crime, either.
In a statement, Greens Leader Adam Bandt said the posters were not connected to the Greens and the act has been reported to the AEC by the party, as per the ABC.
The Greens have reported this to the AEC. There’s a good chance this is a criminal act.
If it turns out this was someone on the conservative side of politics, it shows how desperate they’re getting – their only hope for winning is to lie to people about who they’re voting for. https://t.co/TyqaoXkvOD
— Adam Bandt (@AdamBandt) May 6, 2022
Independent candidate Monique Ryan‘s posters were also defaced. They were slapped with stickers falsely suggesting “vote Ryan you get Labor” overnight.
Ryan is arguably Josh Frydenberg’s strongest opponent for the seat of Kooyong.
The AEC were reluctant to speculate on who might be behind the posters.
““The signs in question vary a little so it is a little hard to generalise [who might be resposible]” a spokesperson for the AEC said to The Guardian.
“However, as a general statement, authorisation is the obvious one that is missing for some we have seen which is a breach of the Commonwealth Electoral Act.”
They added that they were taking the issue “extremely seriously.”
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