This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

An organisation opposing marriage equality has sponsored ads on Facebook encouraging voters to apply for replacement forms to change their vote in the marriage law postal survey.

The Australian Family Association, a member of the Coalition for Marriage, removed its encouragement for people to change their vote after being contacted by Guardian Australia.

The ABS has stated changing a vote is not a valid reason to request a replacement survey form and the acting special minister of state, Mathias Cormann, said that he and the ABS had made that “very clear, immediately and publicly” when false reports first emerged suggesting it was possible.

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The ABS and Australian Electoral Commission declined to say whether any enforcement action could be taken against organisations encouraging people to change their vote.

Three Guardian readers separately reported seeing the sponsored post dated 28 September from the Transgender Marriage Survey page in their Facebook feeds.

The post consists of a video and, until Wednesday, had the accompanying text: “If you have already voted and wish to change your vote, call the ABS”, including its phone number and a link to the online form to apply for a replacement.

“As you are identified at the ABS with a unique barcode, they will issue you with a new ballot paper with the same barcode; your second vote will be counted and your first vote ignored,” it said.

A screengrab of the edit history on the Transgender Marriage Vote post, showing the original text. Photograph: Facebook

A spokeswoman for the Coalition for Marriage said: “I’m informed by the AFA that a number of their supporters had phoned the ABS and had been provided with that advice.

“They are now aware that the ABS has revised that position and so have removed the post.”

Cormann said the ABS had “clear administrative procedures” to prevent people requesting new forms to change their vote.

The ABS online form gives only four valid reasons to apply for a replacement: if a voter’s form is damaged, lost, not received or the voter has a new mailing address.

The possibility of using the process to change votes was first reported on 25 September by Tasmania Talks radio.

On 25 September and again on Wednesday the ABS said: “Changing your mind about your response is not a valid reason to request a replacement form.”

Cormann said when inaccurate claims were first made suggesting people could seek new survey forms “the ABS and I made it very clear, immediately and publicly on the record that a change of mind on how to vote is not a valid reason to request a replacement form”.

“Those statements were accurately and widely reported in the media at the time and I believe are well understood,” he said.

“If any organisation is making incorrect public statements to this effect, this is a matter for the ABS, who in that circumstance take appropriate measures to correct or remove inaccurate statements in relation to the survey.”

The Facebook page is linked to a website launched by the Australian Family Association in September.

The video features young people explaining they are voting no to “being silenced and bullied”, “being called homophobic”, “children gender transitioning and then changing their minds” and “being forced to using radical gender pronouns”. It concludes with text saying it was authorised by Paul Monagle from the AFA.

The video had been viewed more than 50,000 times at the time of writing, although the number who viewed the accompanying post is likely to be higher, as Facebook’s definition of a video “view” requires at least three seconds of the video to have been watched.

A screengrab of the Transgender Marriage Vote post appearing as a sponsored ad in a Guardian reader’s Facebook feed. Photograph: Facebook

The AEC referred Guardian Australia to a webpage on the safeguard law, which explains it applies to information that “is likely to mislead or deceive an enrolled person in relation to responding to the marriage law survey”.

Election expert, Graeme Orr, said advocating a change of vote “seems likely to be in breach of the Safeguards Act section 17 ... because it suggests to people who haven’t voted yet, that they can vote off the cuff thinking they can always later change their mind”.

He said it was also an offence to give false or misleading, “material information” to a government entity, which may apply to voters misrepresenting their reason for applying for a replacement vote.

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A sponsored post is advertising via a Facebook post that appears in the news feed to a specifically targeted pool of people. Facebook advertising is considered to be effective because it allows for messaging to be fed to a very specific audience.



Sponsored posts can also be hidden from the general public. This tactic was seen throughout the Trump campaign and was believed to have contributed to his victory in the 2016 election.

A targeted Facebook ad will hit a user’s news feed based on the selected variables the advertiser decides to appoint. For example, one Guardian reader who reported seeing the Transgender Marriage Vote post said they were targeted as Facebook thought they were interested in “marriage” as a topic.

Other readers have reported targeting information on postal survey ads such as age brackets, gender, state of residence and interest in topics such as Christianity.

We will continue to monitor campaign material throughout the survey period. Please continue to share material – either on social media, or in leaflets and pamphlets – by following this link.