Federal probe into polling place actions

Claims of intimidation outside election polling booths and the handing out of misleading leaflets will be investigated by a federal parliamentary committee.

Special Minister of State Michael Ronaldson has asked the joint standing committee on electoral matters to look at the rules and practices around campaign activities near polling booths.

Senator Ronaldson said the inquiry would look at the distribution of how-to-vote cards and campaigning by organisations other than political parties.

It would also examine allegations about intimidation and the provision of misleading information.

"I have made this reference in response to community concerns about the conduct of campaigners at polling places," the minister said in a statement on Thursday.

At the 2013 federal election it was alleged a Labor supporter acting as an interpreter at a Melbourne polling booth intimidated voters and ripped up Green how-to-vote cards.

In the Victorian seat of Indi there were complaints about anti-independent candidate posters.

And in the NSW seat of Bennelong a racist sticker was placed over a poster bearing the face of Labor candidate Jason Yat-Sen Li.

Liberal members voiced concerns after the NSW state election earlier this year that union members opposed to electricity privatisation used abusive language and intimidated party booth workers.