Bills Digest no. 176 2009–10
Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Pre-poll Voting and
Other Measures) Bill 2010
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage history
Purpose
Background
Financial implications
Main provisions
Contact officer & copyright details
Passage history
Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Pre-poll
Voting and Other Measures) Bill 2010
Date introduced: 2 June 2010
House: House
of Representatives
Portfolio: Special Minister of State
Commencement: Sections 1 to 3 commence upon Royal Assent.
Schedules 1, 3 and 4 commence on Royal Assent. Schedule 2 is to
commence on a date to be fixed by Proclamation or, if not
proclaimed earlier, 6 months following Royal Assent.
Links: The
links to the Bill, its Explanatory Memorandum and second
reading speech can be found on the Bills page, which is at http://www.aph.gov.au/bills/.
When Bills have been passed they can be found at ComLaw, which is
at http://www.comlaw.gov.au/.
The main purpose of the Bill is
to amend the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 and the
Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1984 (Cth) so as
to:
- make provision for electronic updating of electors’
details
- enable the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) to process
enrolment transactions outside the electoral division for which a
person is enrolling
- ‘enable pre-poll votes cast in an elector’s
‘home’ division to be cast and counted as ordinary
votes, wherever practicable’
- ‘restrict the number of candidates that can be endorsed
by a political party in each Division’, and
- enable electronic voting for sight-impaired electors.[1]
In 2006 the Howard Government introduced a suite of significant
changes to electoral and referendum administration with the
Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Electoral Integrity and
Other Measures) Act 2006 (Cth). Changes included:
- the introduction of evidence of identity requirements for
enrolments and provisional voting
- changing the date for the close of rolls from the seventh day
after the issue of the federal election writs to the third working
day after the issue of the writs for certain categories of
enrolment (for updating details; for those turning 18 years of age
between the issue of the writs and polling day; and for those
gaining citizenship between the issue of the writs and polling
day)
- changing the date for the close of rolls from the seventh day
after the issue of the federal election writs to the date of the
issue of the writs for other new enrolments and re-enrolments,
and
- increasing political finance disclosure thresholds from $1500
to more than $10 000 (CPI indexed).[2]
The measures in the Electoral and Referendum Amendment
(Electoral Integrity and Other Measures) Act 2006 (Cth) were
controversial and were opposed by the Australian Labor Party (ALP)
(then in Opposition) and by the minor parties.[3]
In introducing the Bill, the Parliamentary Secretary for Western
and Northern Australia, the Hon Gary Gray MP, stated that the
amendments aim to ‘enhance the ability of otherwise eligible
Australians to participate in the electoral process by removing
obstacles to their enrolment’.[4] The Second Reading speech also
stated:
Of particular concern are the estimated 1.4
million eligible electors currently not on the electoral roll, with
up to two-thirds of the missing electors falling in the 18- to
39-year age group. It is intended that the amendments introduced in
the bill will address declining enrolment rates and improve
electoral participation in this age group, and more generally, by
enabling flexible and modern interaction between eligible electors
and the AEC.[5]
The second reading speech also stated that the Bill implements a
number of recommendations from the Joint Standing Committee on
Electoral Matters (JSCEM) inquiry into the conduct of the 2007
federal election and related matters (referred to the JSCEM by the
Special Minister of State on 27 February 2008 and by the Senate on
12 March 2008).[6] In its inquiry report (June 2009),
a majority of the JSCEM made 53 recommendations relating to a range
of electoral administration matters including the date for the
close of rolls, evidence of identity, enrolment and participation,
pre-poll voting, informal voting, electoral administration,
penalties, prisoner voting rights, and overseas electors.[7]
Specific recommendations relevant to the Bill included:
- provision for the establishment of an enrolment website for
enrolled electors to facilitate timely updating of the electoral
roll by the AEC (Recommendation 9)
- provision ‘to allow pre-poll votes cast at a pre-poll
voting centre in an elector’s home division prior to polling
day to be cast as ordinary votes, wherever practicable’
(Recommendation 22)
- provision for the AEC to manage its workload between elections
by ‘allowing enrolment transactions to be processed outside
the division for which the person is enrolling, provided that those
transactions are processed by a division that is within the same
state or territory’ (Recommendation 42), and
- incorporation of recommended amendments to the Commonwealth
Electoral Act 1918 into the Referendum (Machinery
Provisions) Act 1984 (Cth) where appropriate ‘to ensure
consistency between the provisions applying to elections and
referenda’ (Recommendation 45).[8]
The second reading speech further indicates that the amendments
in the Bill restricting the number of candidates that can be
endorsed by a political party in a single electoral division arise
from the 2009 Bradfield by-election. At the Bradfield by-election
there were 22 candidates, nine of whom were endorsed by one
political party; the informal vote was nine per cent.[9] The second reading speech
states that:
The practice of multiple candidates for a
single Division being endorsed by the registered officer of a
political party has not emerged on this scale prior to the 2009
Bradfield by-election. Legislative amendment is required to prevent
a similar rise in the informality rate in multiple Divisions at the
next federal election.[10]
Proposals to enable electronic voting for sight-impaired
electors give effect to recommendation 49 of the JSCEM report on
the 2007 election and recommendation one of the JSCEM report on the
electronic voting trials at that election.[11]
The Bill is part of the Government’s broader electoral
reform agenda. In December 2008 the Government issued a green paper
examining electoral finance reform issues, and in September 2009 a
second green paper was issued examining broader electoral reform
issues.[12] Both green papers identified
reform possibilities and invited comment.
In 2008 and 2009 the Government introduced Bills making
significant changes to the law relating to electoral funding,
political donations, disclosure and reporting, and certain offences
and penalties.[13] The 2008 Bill was defeated in the
Senate in March 2009 and the 2009 Bill, which is a revised version
of the 2008 Bill, was introduced and passed in March 2009 in the
House of Representatives and is currently before the Senate.
On 11 February 2010, the Government introduced the Electoral and
Referendum Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other Measures) Bill 2010
into the House of Representatives. The Bill contained the same
provisions as the current Bill, but also included provisions
to:
- fix the seventh day after the issue of federal election writs
as the date for the close of rolls
- repeal the evidence of identity requirements for provisional
electors and provide for a signature checking procedure[14]
The earlier Bill was passed by the House of Representatives on
10 March 2010 and introduced into the Senate on 15 March 2010 and
debate continued on 17 March 2010.
The remaining provisions that formed part of the earlier
Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other
Measures) Bill 2010 are proposed in the Electoral and Referendum
Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other Measures) Bill (No. 2) 2010,
introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 June
2010.[15]
Also introduced into the House of Representatives on 2 June 2010
were two further Bills, the Electoral and Referendum Amendment
(Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2010 and the Electoral and
Referendum Amendment (How-to-Vote Cards and Other Measures) Bill
2010. The Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Modernisation and
Other Measures) Bill 2010 proposes to implement a number of
administrative measures relating to certain unanimous
recommendations of JSCEM, such as publishing forms and information
about polling places, evidence of identity for enrolment and
reducing the age of provisional reenrolment from 17 to 16 years of
age.[16] The Electoral and Referendum
Amendment (How-to-Vote Cards and Other Measures) Bill 2010 proposes
to introduce expanded authorisation requirements for how-to-vote
cards and to expand the definition of misleading or deceptive
publication to include the telephone and the internet.[17]
On 2 June 2010 the Electoral and Referendum Amendment
(Modernisation and Other Measures) Bill 2010, the Electoral and
Referendum Amendment (How-to-vote Cards and Other Measures) Bill
2010 and the current Bill, were referred to the Senate Finance and
Public Administration Committee for inquiry and report. The
Committee is due to table its report on 15 June 2010.[18]
In its consideration of the first Electoral and Referendum
Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other Measures) Bill 2010, the
Opposition opposed the measures relating to the close of rolls and
evidence of identity for provisional electors, and supported the
other components of the Bill.[19] The Opposition’s
stance is consistent with the JSCEM Opposition members’
dissent, in the Committee’s report on the 2007 election, from
the majority recommendations concerning the close of rolls and
evidence of identity for provisional electors.[20] The
Opposition indicated that it would support the other measures of
that Bill, which now form part of the Electoral and Referendum
Amendment (Pre-poll Voting and Other Measures) Bill 2010.
The Australian Greens endorsed the first Electoral and
Referendum Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other Measures) Bill 2010
but also signalled their intention to move an amendment in the
Senate requiring truth in political advertising.[21] Amendments
proposed by the Greens in the Senate concerned additional
provisions relating to the use of automated telephone calls,
misleading and deceptive publications in campaigning.[22]
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon proposed an amendment to the
first Electoral and Referendum Amendment (Close of Rolls and Other
Measures) Bill 2010 concerning procedures relating to provisional
voting, unrelated to the current Bill.[23] Family First
Senator Steve Fielding has not yet indicated his position on the
Bill.
The Government estimates that the cost of implementing the
measures in the Bill at approximately $1.2 million. It is further
anticipated that efficiencies in pre-poll voting at future federal
elections would generate net savings over the forward estimates to
the value of $5.3 million.[24]
Under current legislation, pre-poll votes are not counted on
election night as each declaration accompanying each vote is
required to be scrutinised to determine that the elector has a
valid entitlement to vote.[25] The Bill proposes to amend the Electoral Act and the
Referendum Act to provide a new category of pre-poll vote,
‘pre-poll ordinary votes’, as distinct from the renamed
category of ‘pre-poll declaration votes’. The inclusion
of pre-poll ordinary votes would enable pre-poll votes cast in an
elector’s ‘home’ division to be treated as
ordinary votes and counted on election night. ‘Home’
division refers to the division in which the elector is
enrolled.
Under the measures in the Bill pre-poll ordinary voting would
take place in a pre-poll voting office or the office of the
Divisional Returning Officer (DRO) within an elector’s
division in separate voting compartments where voting can be
undertaken in private. The AEC could also determine, in writing,
the availability of pre-poll ordinary voting at specified places.
Those provisionally enrolled and those applying at the office of an
Assistant Returning Officer (ARO), including an ARO outside of
Australia, would not be entitled to cast a pre-poll ordinary
vote.[26] The Bill
also proposes to introduce new procedures for the handling and
transportation of boxes housing pre-poll ordinary votes.
Over successive elections, the long-held assumption that
electors will vote in person at their local polling booth on
election day is becoming less realistic. Changes to demographic and
work patterns over recent decades have driven an increase in demand
for early voting, particularly in pre-poll and postal voting. At
the 1993 federal election, the number of pre-poll votes cast was
just under 400 000. By 2007 the number of pre-poll votes cast had
more than doubled to about 1.1 million votes.[27] Pre-poll votes comprised about
38 per cent of all declaration votes cast at the 2007 election. The
number of pre-poll votes cast from within electors’ home
divisions amounted to 667 625 votes or 60 per cent of all pre-poll
votes. In total, home pre-poll votes account for 5 per cent of all
votes cast at the election.[28]
The growth in early voting at elections has a number of
implications. Early voting adds to the administrative cost of
elections as each declaration vote must be individually assessed to
confirm their validity in accordance with electoral law. Given that
early votes are not counted on election night, a growth in their
proportion of the total vote would decrease the probability of
reaching a definitive result on election night. At the 2007
election, ordinary votes made up around 80 per cent of the total
vote. If home division pre-poll votes were treated as ordinary
votes at that election, 85 per cent of all votes cast would have
been counted on election night.[29]
In its submission to the JSCEM, the AEC noted some advantages of
the proposed reform including:
- reducing the likelihood of delaying the election result until
after election night when the pre-poll votes are counted; and
- decreasing the work required to scrutinise declaration votes as
electors using pre-poll votes would be marked off the certified
vote list within their home divisions.
The AEC has also noted that the procedure is in operation at the
federal level for mobile polling and has been adopted and used in
Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania and the territories.[30]
Since 1993 the AEC has advocated for home division pre-poll
votes be counted as ordinary votes on polling night. However, the
reform has been resisted by the JSCEM in the past, primarily
because the Committee wanted to encourage electors to vote in
person on polling day.[31]
Schedule
2— processing of enrolments
Currently under the Electoral Act and the Referendum Act the AEC
processes enrolment applications and enrolment changes during the
non-election period in the home divisions of electors. After an
election is called the Electoral Act enables the AEC to process
enrolment transactions across its divisional office network. The
Bill proposes to enable the AEC to share its enrolment workload
across its divisional offices during non-election periods so that
it can manage its work with greater flexibility, as it currently
does during the election period. The aim of the proposal is to
enable the AEC to more efficiently manage its workload regardless
of the stage of the election cycle. In its submission to the JSCEM
2007 election inquiry the AEC noted that the measure would provide
more effective handling of roll close processing arrangements and
broader work scheduling concerning staff availability and training
requirements.[32]
The proposal departs from JSCEM’s recommendation in one
respect. The Committee recommended that the AEC be enabled to
process enrolment transactions outside the home division of
electors, but within the same state or territory. The proposed
measure in the Bill does not stipulate that transactions be
processed within the home state or territory of electors. The Bill
proposes to provide greater flexibility than the JSCEM
recommendation ‘so that all staff and geographical locations
can be utilised to derive maximum efficiency in enrolment
processing’.[33] In making its recommendation, the
JSCEM expressed concern that the AEC does not alter the current
divisional office structure and its physical presence in almost all
divisions across the country.[34] The Bill does not propose
to do so.
The proposed measure specifies the Electoral Commissioner as
responsible for receiving and processing enrolment transactions
rather than the DRO or the Australian Electoral Officer. New
provisions would then enable the Electoral Commissioner to delegate
his or her enrolment powers to any office or staff member within
the AEC. Enrolment transactions covered under the proposal include
‘entering a person’s details on the electoral roll or
annotating an enrolment record to identify a special category of
elector, such as an eligible overseas elector’.[35]
Currently electors are required to complete and sign a hard copy
form in order to enrol or update their enrolment details.[36] Provisions under
Schedule 4 of the Bill propose to enable electors who are already
on the roll to update their details electronically. The Bill also
provides for the making of regulations to prescribe minimum
verification information, such as date of birth and drivers licence
details, to confirm the authenticity of online transactions.
At June 2009 it was estimated that 1 232 935 eligible people
were not on the electoral roll, equating to 8.2 per cent of the
eligible population. Over the past ten years, the estimated
proportion of eligible people enrolled has fluctuated between a
high of 93.2 per cent at the 2001 election and just over 90 per
cent in June 2006.[37] The AEC conducts enrolment
campaigns and writes to electors as part of its roll review and
stimulation activities, although ultimately it is an
elector’s responsibility to enrol and maintain their own
enrolment. Currently practices to update the roll have not been
particularly effective. Of the letters sent by the AEC to over
three million people in 2007-08, only 700 000 completed
application forms were returned.[38]
The proposed measures to enable electronic enrolment updates are
part of a broader government plan to reform and modernise electoral
administration to increase enrolment and the integrity of the roll.
In 2009 the Special Minister of State asked the JSCEM to inquire
into the New South Wales Parliamentary Electorates and Elections
Amendment (Automatic Enrolment) Bill and its consequences for the
purposes of Commonwealth elections.[39] That Bill,
which gained royal assent on 14 December 2009, amended the
Parliamentary Elections and Elections Act 1912 (NSW) to,
inter alia, implement the ‘Smart roll’ system
of automatic enrolment for state and local government elections and
to enable electors to enrol and cast a provisional vote on polling
day.[40]
In its February 2010 inquiry report the JSCEM noted that the AEC
supported the NSW amendments. A majority of the Committee
recommended that the Electoral Act be amended to harmonise with NSW
by enabling the automatic enrolment of electors on the basis of
data provided by trusted agencies, and providing enrolment on
polling day for provisional voting.[41] Opposition
members of the JSCEM dissented from the majority
recommendations.[42] The report now awaits a
government response.
Schedule
3— nomination of candidates
Currently under the Electoral Act there is no limitation on the
number of candidates that can be endorsed (nominated) by a single
party in one division. The Bill proposes to limit the number of
candidates that can be endorsed by a registered political party in
a single division to one. As noted above, this measure arises from
the circumstances at the 2009 Bradfield by-election where nine of
the 22 candidates were endorsed by a single party, the Christian
Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group). Given the large number of
candidates standing for that division, the possibility of electors
making inadvertent errors increased, and there was an unusually
high rate of informal votes at 9 per cent.[43] The rate of informal votes at the
by-election were the highest recorded for the division and more
than double the nation average of informal votes of 3.95 per cent
at the 2007 election. The aim of the proposal is to prevent such a
high informal vote from reoccurring as a result of the endorsement
of multiple candidates by one party in a single division.[44]
In order to be registered in accordance with the Electoral Act,
a political party must have at least 500 members and meet other
conditions.[45] Candidates of registered parties
only require the endorsement of a single registered officer of
their party to stand for election. They also benefit having their
party name listed alongside their own name on the ballot paper.
Independent candidates, and candidates who do not obtain the
official endorsement of a registered political party, are required
to demonstrate, among other things, the support of 50 electors in
the division in which they are seeking to nominate in order to be
listed on the ballot. Under the proposal, if a registered party
wished to nominate more than one candidate in a division, the
nomination for all of those candidates in that division would be
rejected.
At the most recent federal election there were no divisions in
which more than one candidate was endorsed by one party. The
practice of registered parties endorsing more than one candidate in
a single division appears to be rare in federal electoral history.
This suggests that such a practice may not be in the electoral
interests of political parties.[46] While there may not be a
clear electoral advantage for a registered party to endorse more
than one candidate in a division, the need to set the limit per
division at one, in electoral law, could be questioned. For
example, is it worth limiting democratic choice for a possible
reduction in the rate of informal voting? Some relevant election
statistics in relation to the endorsement of candidates by
registered parties include:
- at the 2007 federal election, at total of 1 054 candidates
stood for election in the 150 House of Representatives seats across
Australia, with an average of about seven per division. In each of
those divisions, there was a maximum of one candidate endorsed by
each registered political party. The division with the highest
number of candidates in 2007 was Bennelong with 13
candidates.[47]
- by-elections have tended to attract a greater number of
candidates per division compared with general elections, with an
average of about 10.4 candidates per by-election since
2000.[48]
- the 2009 by-election in the division of Bradfield equalled the
record for the highest number of candidates for a division (at 22
candidates). Until 2009, the election or by-election with the
highest number of candidates was the 1992 by-election in the
Victorian division of Wills, vacated by the former Prime Minister
Bob Hawke. In that by-election, 22 candidates competed for the
seat, four of which were endorsed by political parties. The
informal vote recorded at that by-election was 6.4 per
cent.[49]
- the rate of informal voting at the Bradfield by-election was 9
per cent. The highest rate of informal voting at the 2007 general
election was 9.5 per cent in the NSW division of Blaxland. The
highest rate of informal voting over the previous four general
elections was in 2001 in the NSW division of Fowler.[50]
- the rate of informal voting at the Higgins by-election which
was contested by 10 candidates (and held on the same day as the
Bradfield by-election) was 4.2 per cent. The Australian Labor Party
did not endorse a candidate in each of those by-elections,
continuing the historically recent trend of governments not
nominating candidates for by-elections in their opponents’
safe seats.[51]
The AEC conducted a trial of electronic voting for
sight-impaired electors and defence personnel serving outside
Australia as part of the 2007 federal election. The provision for
electronic voting was a one-off trial for the 2007 election only,
enabled by the Electoral and Referendum Amendment Act
2007. The Bill proposes to amend the Electoral Act and
Referendum Act to establish a framework for providing
electronically assisted voting for sight impaired electors at
future referenda and at general, Senate and by- elections. The Bill
would also enable the further development of electronically
assisted voting methods in the future. Finally, the Bill provides
for the making of regulations to address procedural matters
regarding the process of casting electronically assisted votes,
dealing with privacy and secrecy issues, the availability of
electronically assisted voting and the retention and treatment of
records of such votes.[52] The amendments would not reinstate the conduct of
electronic voting for defence personnel serving outside
Australia.
Under the proposed measure, electors who met the conditions for
casting electronically assisted votes would be able to do so at an
AEC Divisional Office. The conditions for casting electronically
assisted votes will be set out in regulations. The previous
practice of applying to use an electronic assisted facility would
no longer be required. Regulations will also provide that a record
of the vote can be printed, handwritten or provided in electronic
form.[53] As an
interim measure (for the next federal election), the AEC intends to
implement assisted voting by providing a private area within its
Divisional Offices where eligible electors can cast a secret vote
by speaking with call centre operators who will then complete the
ballots according to their instructions.[54] One possible area of contention
concerning the planned implementation is that, without detail on
how secrecy and the independence of voters are to be protected, the
method may not facilitate a fully secret and independent
vote.[55] Another
possible area of contention is that the trial of electronic voting
for defence personnel serving outside Australia will not be
continued.
The method of electronic voting used in the trial at the 2007
election was via a machine, with a 21-inch flat screen monitor for
those with some vision or with pre-recorded voice or Braille
instructions for blind electors. The preferences of voters were
recorded on a two-dimensional barcode to protect the secrecy of the
vote. The trial was implemented in 29 sites across Australia
(compared with over 8000 polling places).[56] The cost of implementing the trial of
electronic voting for sight impaired electors was $2.2
million.[57] By
contrast, the intended implementation of the proposed measure, via
a call centre, is estimated to cost $370 000.[58] It was estimated that
910–1550 voters would use the facility in 2007. The actual
number of voters who used the facility was 881. Estimates of the
number of Australians who are blind or have low vision varies from
about 160 000 to up to 300 000.[59]
Prior to the trial of electronic voting, electors with impaired
vision required the assistance of another person to complete their
ballot papers. As a result, the votes of vision impaired electors
were not secret and, potentially, not independent. Previously
concerns were also raised about the application of traditional
voting methods for Australian defence personnel in conflict zones
overseas. In response to these issues, in its report on the 2004
federal election the JSCEM recommended a trial of electronically
assisted voting.[60] The 2007 trial of electronic voting for sight impaired
persons and overseas defence personnel was reviewed in a separate
inquiry of the JSCEM. In that inquiry, the Committee noted that the
combined cost of both trials at over $4 million equated to an
average cost of $2597 per vote for sight impaired electors and
$1159 per vote for defence force personnel serving overseas,
compared with the average cost per elector at the 2007 election of
$8.36.[61] In view
of these costs, the Committee recommended, among other things, that
the trials be discontinued.[62] In its report on the 2007 election, the committee
further examined the issue and recommended continued investigation
into the ‘viability and sustainability of assisted voting
arrangements aimed at providing secret and independent voting for
electors who are blind or have low vision’.[63] The proposed new measures to
enable electronic voting for sight-impaired electors are a response
to that recommendation.
Only significant amendments are dealt with in this part of the
Digest. In most instances amendments to the Electoral Act are
mentioned as most amendments to the Referendum Act are in similar
terms.
Part 1 items 1-39 amend the Electoral Act, and
items 40-76 amend the Referendum Act in a similar
way. The effect of the amendments is that there are 2 types of
pre-poll vote, the ordinary vote, and the declaration vote
(new section 200AA). As discussed in the
background section of this Digest the new category of pre-poll
ordinary votes would enable pre-poll votes cast in an
elector’s ‘home’ division to be treated as
ordinary votes and counted on election night.
A pre-poll ordinary vote is made in accordance with Division 3,
and a pre-poll declaration vote is made in accordance with Division
4.
Item 7 amends subsection 200A(2) to add a note
that explains that a person who is provisionally enrolled is not
entitled to vote by pre-poll ordinary vote. Item
14 inserts new Division 3 sections 200DC
to 200DR which determine how voting by pre-poll
ordinary vote is to occur.
New section 200DD provides that pre-poll
ordinary voting can be carried out at:
- any pre-poll voting office in the division
- any other specified place declared by the Electoral Commission
(see new subsection 200BA(1A))
- the office of the DRO for the division.
New section 200DG provides for when a voter is
and is not entitled to vote by pre-poll ordinary vote. The
circumstances for when a voter is not entitled to vote are set out
in new subsection 200DG(2) and include matters
such as failure to comply with the requirements relating to signing
the pre-poll vote certificate for ordinary voting, failing the
tests relating to answering to questions set out in new
section 200DI (name, address and whether voter has already
voted), if the information on the roll is not in accordance with
the requirements or if the voter is provisionally enrolled.
Division 4 makes minor amendments to the
Electoral Act to incorporate the concept of a (pre-poll)
declaration vote into the part of the Act relating to pre-poll
voting. The Division applies to persons who have applied to
pre-poll vote who are not entitled to vote by (pre-poll) ordinary
vote.
Much of Schedule 2 concerns the ability of the Electoral
Commissioner to delegate his or her powers and functions to any
officer or member to the staff of the Electoral Commission.
New subsection 28(4) extends the powers and
functions of the Electoral Commissioner that can be delegated to
those contained in:
- sections 86 and 87
- the provisions of Parts VII, VIII, IX and X
- sections 184A to 185C, and
- section 249.
These pertain to new rolls and additions to the rolls,
qualifications and disqualifications for enrolment and voting,
enrolment, objections, review of decisions, postal vote
applications and processes, and Antarctic electors
respectively. As explained in the background to this Digest,
these amendments will enable the AEC to share its enrolment
workload across its divisional offices during non-election
periods.
Item 2 inserts new subsection
166(1AA) into the Electoral Act so that in a House of
Representatives election the registered officer of a registered
political party is prohibited from nominating more than one
candidate for a particular Division. If they do so the nominations
will be rejected under section 172(1), although item
4 inserts new subsection 172(1A) which
has the effect that where:
a bulk nomination has been received by the AEO
and it includes 2 or more candidates for a single Division (in
breach of the requirements of new subsection 166(1AA)), the AEO
must reject the bulk nomination for the 2 or more same Division
candidates, but the remainder of the bulk nomination will be
valid.[64]
Part XVB of the Electoral Act relating to electronic voting
methods is amended so that it applies only to electronic assisted
voting for sight-impaired people. Item 20
accordingly repeals Division 2 of Part XVB which provides for
remote electronic voting for defence personnel serving outside
Australia.
Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain further
information from the Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277 2500.
Mark Rodrigues
16 June 2010
Bills Digest Service
Parliamentary Library
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