The Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) considered at least ten other options for renaming the Victorian electorate of Corangamite, before settling on the controversial Cox.
Last month the AEC announced that Corangamite, currently held by Liberal MP Sarah Henderson would likely be renamed to Cox after the redistribution process, which removes Corangamite Lake and the local council of the same name from her electorate.
The committee in charge of redistribution proposed that the electorate be named after May Cox, a teacher, surf lifesaver and founder of the Learn to Swim program in the state, but documents obtained by BuzzFeed News reveal that several other options were considered before Cox was decided.
Henderson, and several residents in the electorate of Corangamite have objected to the name on the grounds that it will be mocked in parliament, with jokes made about the "Member for Cox" and, for example, jokes when the Member for Cox is asked to withdraw.
Internal AEC emails obtained by BuzzFeed News using freedom of information laws reveal that several other local names were suggested by AEC staff in the process of settling on a proposed new name.
In February 2018, secretariat for the Victorian redistribution committee, Melanie Chan, proposed 10 different names for the electorate, including Cox, local philanthropist Elizabeth Austin, opera singer Marjorie Lawrence, engineer William Calder, former Geelong mayor and proponent of the Great Ocean Road Howard Hitchcock, and the first artistic director of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Peter Tully.
National redistributions manager Nicole Taylor suggested that Cox, along with landscape designer Edna Walling, Calder, and Hitchcock be added to the short list along with women's suffrage campaigner Henrietta Dugdale, and English convict William Buckley (who escaped and lived with the indigenous community in Victoria for decades).
None of the documents released by the AEC reveal how Cox was finally settled upon, and none of the emails reveal any AEC staff raising questions about whether Cox would be an inappropriate name for the electorate.
AEC commissioner Tom Rogers told the Australian Financial Review that it was "a nonsense" not to recognise someone like Cox just because she has an "odd name".
Some residents of the electorate also objected to losing the Indigenous name for the electorate.
The AEC released the emails this week, after the deadline for raising objections to the proposed re-naming of the electorate passed on Friday.
The final determination of the electorate boundaries and new names is set to be completed in July.