A Latrobe Valley woman whose wedding ring slipped off into a ballot box when voting early at Traralgon last Monday has reclaimed her precious piece of jewellery.
Strict election rules meant the ring could not be retrieved by the Australian Electoral Commission until the vote count began on Saturday night.
“It was the first box to be opened and carefully sifted through,” AEC Gippsland divisional returning officer David Wakely said.
“There were people carefully opening folded ballot papers to see if it was there and it was spied slipping down the papers in the box and retrieved.”
The woman recovered the ring from Sale yesterday morning.
“She was relieved to be reunited with it and slightly embarrassed,” Mr Wakely said.
Each ballot box contains about 1000 votes and opening one prior to the election would have jeopardised the counting process.
The box in question was specially marked with the woman’s details and kept in a secure storage facility at Sale.
