Anti Vax "Freedom" Movement Claims Voter Fraud

As soon as news broke that Prime Minister Scot Morrison conceded defeat in the Australian election the anti-vax 'freedom' movement jumped into action

11:41pm 21 May - "Democracy has been dead for some time... Australia... should look at forming a breakaway Republic to dump the Great Reset Communist Globalist agenda." - Jamie McIntyre

Anthony Albanese Sunday May 22 Credit: AP

Telegram groups Convoy to Canberra and the Great Southern Land Gathering, two of the largest social media groups representing the big tent movement of anti-vaxxers, mandate protestors, and conspiracy theorists went into overdrive.

So far unfounded claims of voter fraud have made two arguments.

The more moderate position that the election is inherently unfair.

With conspiracy groups claiming that preferencing was done illegally, counting was rigged, and that voters were misled by the AEC.

Many posters were claiming to be election scrutineers with evidence of malfeasence. However so far no users have posted evidence either of wrongdoing or proof they were scrutineers.

"Someone in the AEC had decided to run a two-party preferred system of accounting, and the two parties they were preferring were the liberal and the labor parties... all the minor parties/independents votes (substantial) were ignored." - Starrynight unverified election scrutineer.

Users did not respond to requests for comments

No evidence has been presented for these claims, and election observers have registered no complaints.

The poor showing of parties who aligned themselves with the 'freedom' movement such as the UAP and One Nation seems to be dividing the movement between moderate and extreme elements of the protest movement.

The forums have been unusually quiet. And posts are split between arguments that the election was fair or real and they need to try harder, and be more strategic. And those convinced the election was either rigged or fake.

The 'freedom' movement has suffered from lacking a coherent message. A big tent movement it has brought together vegan environmentalists, with extremist far right groups.

Message boards skew wildly between claims of "unnatural" ingredients in vaccines to claims of satanic cabals of paedophiles hiding in tunnels.

However at its core the organisation is united in a collective belief of a large scale Covid conspiracy. Though even this ranges from an improperly tested vaccine to mind control.

This conspiracy mindset has never been clearer than when around 25'000 protestors convinced themselves that there were between 500'000 and 5 million protestors in Canberra in late February.

One of the leaders of the protest movement conspiracy theorist Richard Bossi claimed 2.5 million. Former Qantas pilot Graham Hood, claimed 1 million with 5 million on the way.

With the election results almost counted it looks like parties aligned with the 'freedom' movement are set receive fewer than 1 million votes.

The freedom movement has spent the last 5 months reinforcing and one upping conspiracy theories in their ranks.

The election has shown beyond a doubt that these groups are a radical fringe minority.

Whether this minority will fade into the background like so many failed political movements of the past, or if it will transform into a more extreme movement akin to the Qanon movement in America is yet to be seen.