Eleventh hour election changes a 'recipe for disaster' as minor parties fight to keep preference system

By Heath Aston
Updated February 12 2016 - 10:23pm, first published 8:05pm
Independent senator Nick Xenophon is at odds with Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm and independent senator Jacqui Lambie over the potential changes to Senate voting. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen
Independent senator Nick Xenophon is at odds with Liberal Democrat senator David Leyonhjelm and independent senator Jacqui Lambie over the potential changes to Senate voting. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

The Turnbull government has been warned it is running out of time to deliver on Senate voting reforms to end "preference harvesting", with one election expert saying the job of upgrading vote-counting software and reconfiguring millions of ballot papers would be a "recipe for disaster" for the trouble-prone Australian Electoral Commission if done at the last minute.

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