11.20PM UPDATE Wollongong Liberal candidate Michelle Blicavs believes a box of her party’s how-to-vote cards were stolen from a pre-polling booth earlier this week before being tampered with and handed out to voters yesterday.The Liberals have lodged a formal complaint with the NSW Electoral Commission following the discovery of 800 fraudulent how-to-vote cards allegedly hidden among Labor’s campaign material at the Farmborough Rd polling booth yesterday morning.It is believed some cards were handed out to voters.The cards falsely directed Liberal voters to give their second preferences to incumbent Labor MP Noreen Hay.The Liberal Party was advocating a “vote one” strategy in Wollongong.Liberal head office has accused Ms Hay’s campaign team of doctoring the how-to-vote cards, but she has strenuously denied any involvement.‘‘I know absolutely nothing about that and I’m trying to investigate it myself right now,’’ she said on Saturday afternoon.Ms Blicavs said she was shocked by the scandal, adding ‘‘it’s the exact reason why I have been fighting for nine months to see real change in Wollongong.’’She believed the how-to-vote cards were stolen from a pre-poll booth in Burelli St earlier this week before being altered off-site and slipped back into the Liberal’s campaign material.Ms Blicavs said a member of the Liberal Party who was manning the Farmborough Rd booth noticed the fraudulent cards were being handed out by Liberal volunteers.He investigated further and found a box of the cards hidden among the ALP’s campaign material, Ms Blicavs alleged.It is believed the doctored cards were surreptitiously being slipped into the Liberal Party’s material as they were being recycled.A NSW Electoral Commission spokesman confirmed a complaint had been received.“The returning officer was instructed to tell the ALP people involved to not hand out that material,” he said.It remains uncertain if the election outcome would be challenged as a result of the scandal.The spokesman said such a challenge would be dealt with by the courts, not the commission.