Something strange and troubling is going on in the electorate offices of Australia.
As MPs count down the days to the federal poll, it seems that something is happening to the contact information of women who happen to live with men. Something that may or may not involve time-travel.
In a puzzling development that has many scratching their heads this week, women have been coming forward on social media with photos of the letters they have received from MPs that address them as having their boyfriends' last name, despite that absolutely not being the case. It's happened even in examples where the woman is the homeowner.
It seems that whatever database technology is being used, there's some kind of glitch that is winding the information back to the 1950s, when, perhaps, it might have been assumed that a woman living with a man was basically just an extension of himself.
And women are obviously not too happy about it.
The culprits include Liberal MP Nick Varvaris and the Prime Minister himself.
According to the ABC's Lucy Carter, who herself received letters from the PM that had given her her partner's last name, there have been numerous other examples of letters being addressed to people who live in the same house with the same last name as the man in the household - including siblings and housemates.
The Australian Electoral Commission confirmed that it only changes the last name of a person who fills out a name change form, which means the data is being changed after it reaches the Liberal party.
And as for them? They've blamed it on "human error".
A written statement from the Liberal party responding to Carter's questioning apologised for the gaffe: "Human error inadvertently meant some people living at the same address were grouped together.
"This was unintentional. No discourtesy was intended and we apologise."
Unfortunately for the MPs, this "human error" looks a lot like someone making extremely outdated assumptions about their constituents' marital status and the gendered power dynamic within relationships. Not the best look less than a week out from polling day.
This story first appeared on the Sydney Morning Herald.
