Clover Moore on the roof of Sydney Town Hall. Credit:Louise Kennerley However, the government appears to reject Mr Walker's analysis while the council, which accepts the analysis, says it does not appear people have exploited the loophole. Under the City of Sydney Act, corporations within the city are required to nominate two company officers to vote on the company's behalf. But if a business is owned or operated by a person, not an incorporated entity, those persons are allowed only one vote. The "gap" in the laws, according to Mr Walker, exists where a company and a person, or several people, own or occupy a business together. If those people who jointly owned or occupied the business with a company did not nominate for the non-residential roll, the City of Sydney would be required to automatically "deem" those individuals onto the roll.

Bret Walker, SC, identified a gap in electoral laws for the City of Sydney that could have been exploited. Credit:Penny Bradfield And there would be no limit, according to Mr Walker, to the number of people deemed onto the roll in this fashion. The way to manipulate the roll, therefore, would be to jointly own a business with a company, and then add other individuals as co-owners of the business. "The lacuna, insofar as it operates in respect of the natural persons identified above, presents a very serious potential to exploit the electoral system for council elections by effectively allowing stacking of the non-residential rolls," says the advice by Mr Walker, one of the country's pre-eminent barristers, and who is regularly mooted as a candidate for a top judicial job. "For example, in order to take advantage of the lacuna, an occupier of rateable land in the City of Sydney could incorporate a company which jointly occupies that premises. The first occupier could then invite, say, 10 friends to share his occupation of that premise[s]," the advice says.

"The joint occupiers could then elect not to nominate two natural person electors on their behalf. In those circumstances, each of the 11 natural person joint occupiers would be entitled to be enrolled." Mr Walker's advice, prepared with fellow barrister Faye Ashworth, says the number of people entitled to vote under such an arrangement was "potentially unlimited". For its part, the government appears to reject Mr Walker's analysis. A spokesman for Local Government Minister Paul Toole said: "Where joint owners, lessees or occupiers comprising corporations and natural persons fail to make a nomination, no one will be entitled to be enrolled with respect to the landholding in question." This interpretation runs contrary to Mr Walker's.

The City of Sydney, however, administered the act in line with Mr Walker's interpretation. But a spokeswoman for the council said it had "no evidence that any group has taken advantage of this situation". "For this type of deeming to occur, a group of natural persons and its partner corporation would have had to submit the enrolment details of each natural person, as well as full details of the corporation. This has not happened to date," the spokeswoman said. Nominations for the non-residential roll for the City of Sydney closed in July, meaning it would now be too late for people to game the vote for September's election. Under the act, corporations are required to nominate two company officers to vote, though those officers can't also be nominated for other corporations or also be on the City of Sydney's electoral roll. The situation becomes more confusing when people and corporations are jointly occupying a premises. In a gym, for example, where a number of personal trainers might work out of the same space, those personal trainers would only be able to nominate two voters among themselves, unless they leased specific locations within the gym.

Almost 23,000 potential voters have been added to the non-residential roll after the business voting changes, which were described by lord mayor Clover Moore as an "undemocratic gerrymander". The extra votes increase the chance that if Cr Moore is returned as mayor, she may lose her majority on council. Of those 23,000 additions to the electoral roll, 2242 were "deemed" onto the roll by council staff. Separately, Cr Moore has criticised one of her chief rivals, Liberal Christine Forster, for hosting a $1000-a-head fundraising dinner on Wednesday night with federal Cities Minister Angus Taylor. "I've never heard of a $1000-a-head fundraiser for a council election," Cr Moore said. But Cr Forster said only about eight people would be attending the dinner, where there would be an opportunity to discuss cities policy and the "City of Sydney's abject failure to embrace digital transformation".