Who's telling Porky's?

This story was given to me by a candidate at the recent Logan Council elections, it is of interest because I have been against the way the amalgamations were done and the outcomes which put some very different areas together with an obvious agenda and left some shires in an interesting position considering the adage that the whole deal was about stronger (read financially) Councils.

Here is a story from the Gold Coast Bulletin ;

Hundreds tear up ballots in protest

Leah Fineran
17Mar08

LOCAL government stalwart Ray Hackwood watched in horror on election day as hundreds of Beenleigh locals tore up ballot papers in an angry protest at the contentious State Government boundary changes.
LOCAL government stalwart Ray Hackwood watched in horror on election day as hundreds of Beenleigh locals tore up ballot papers in an angry protest at the contentious State Government boundary changes.
Almost 700 informal votes were recorded in the suburbs of Beenleigh and Eagleby, which were excised from the Gold Coast into Logan City as part of the council realignments.
The former Gold Coast Division 1 officially became Logan City's new Division 12 on Saturday, but Cr Hackwood said residents' actions showed they were still angry about not being given a say in the change by the State Government.
Cr Hackwood said he watched voters at all six Division 12 polling booths tear up and dump their ballot papers without voting on Saturday.
What I saw were people registering so they wouldn't be fined, then taking their ballot papers outside and throwing them in the bin," he said.
The numbers clearly show that people are still upset and angry over this decision."
The informal voting trend cost Cr Hackwood his usual 80 per cent win, but he still romped home with almost 50 per cent of the vote against opponents Jennie Breene and Peter Eather.
The statistics show the former Gold Coast and Albert Shire councillor still has the people's vote despite the area's third council shuffle in 14 years.
The northern suburbs were under Albert Shire Council until 1994, when they were resumed by the Gold Coast City Council before being excised to Logan City Council.
Cr Hackwood said the backlash had marred victory but he was optimistic that Beenleigh and surrounding suburbs would receive better treatment under the larger Logan City Council.

OK so, on contacting the returning officer to find out that no significant number of ballots were short compared to those crossed off the roll, this candidate wondered why the news paper hadn't checked before putting out an obviously untrue story, and on hearing the story i did too.

Now I know candidates try to gee up the public before elections and are prone to putting out stories to try to form perception in the minds of the public that the candidate is on their side and the others will make life difficult etc. but this story was after the election and was plainly made up.

I have advised the candidate to contact the editor or reporter to get their side of the story, and hopefully I will be able to add that here if there is an answer of any kind.

In the meantime what can the ratepayers of Division and Logan in general expect from someone who has told reporters a story that has no credibility and no facts to back it up? Very little I'd expect.