This report includes several recommendations for consideration by the Parliament of South Australia. The context and reason for each of these recommendations can be found throughout the report in break-out sections titled ‘A call for legislative change’.
Recommendations for legislative change...
Enrolment on the day
Legislation impacted: s 32B, s 69
That the Electoral Act be amended to enable eligible potential new electors to enrol up to and on polling day. After claiming enrolment, these electors would be allowed to cast a declaration vote, which would not be admitted to the count until an enrolment investigation had been satisfactorily completed in the week after polling day.
FIND OUT MOREVoting exemption for itinerant electors
Legislation impacted: s 85
That the Electoral Act be amended so that itinerant electors are exempted from the obligation to vote at state elections.
FIND OUT MOREEnrolment of itinerant electors
Legislation impacted: s 31A
That the Electoral Act be amended to avoid inconsistency with the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918, so that itinerant electors who fail to vote at a state election, or who remain outside South Australia for a continuous period of more than one month, continue to be entitled to be enrolled as itinerant electors.
FIND OUT MOREOnline portal for candidate nominations
Legislation impacted: s 53, s 53A, s 54
That the Electoral Act be amended to prescribe a method for the electronic lodgement of nominations, voting tickets, and HTV cards to enable more accurate, timely, and robust mechanisms that assist and support parties and candidates with meeting legislative obligations.
FIND OUT MOREEmergency powers
Legislation impacted: Pt 9
That the Electoral Act be amended to grant the Electoral Commissioner greater authority and flexibility to determine how certain voting processes and activities may be undertaken when an emergency declaration is in force. Specific changes are sought to allow the Commissioner to extend access to voting services to affected electors.
FIND OUT MOREPublic notices
Legislation impacted: s 18, s 41, s 48, s 49, s 77
That the Electoral Act be amended to remove the obligation for the Electoral Commissioner to place public notices by advertisement in a newspaper circulating generally throughout the state, so that notices can instead be published on ECSA’s website or by any other means the Electoral Commissioner deems appropriate.
FIND OUT MORERemoving signature requirements for postal vote applications
Legislation impacted: s 73, s 74, s 91
That the Electoral Act be amended to remove the requirement for postal vote applications and applications for the register of declaration voters to be by letter and to bear the signature of the elector, so that a secure method can be implemented to allow electors to apply for postal votes online or by telephone while retaining a suitable verification process for returning officers.
FIND OUT MOREPostal voting timeframes
Legislation impacted: s 74, s 82, s 91
That the Electoral Act be amended to modify the timeframes for postal voting:
1. Bringing forward the deadline to apply for a postal vote from 5 pm on the Thursday prior to polling day to:
i. 5 pm on the Tuesday prior to polling day for applications from South Australian locations; and
ii. 5 pm on the Friday, 8 days prior to polling day, for applications from interstate locations.
2. Pushing back the deadline to return a postal vote from the Saturday, 7 days after polling day, to the Monday, 9 days after polling day.
Telephone-assisted voting
Legislation impacted: s 73, s 74, s 76, s 78, s 79, s 82, s 91
That the Electoral Act be amended to allow ECSA to replace long-distance postal voting for electors overseas, interstate, or in remote locations of South Australia with telephone-assisted voting. ECSA also seeks to extend telephone voting to electors with a disability, and should an emergency declaration be in place at the time of an election, to categories of electors who require the service, as determined by the Electoral Commissioner.
FIND OUT MOREPolitical involvement in the postal vote application process
Legislation impacted: s 74A
That the Electoral Act be amended so that an elector who is eligible to vote by post may only apply for a postal vote using a form provided for this purpose by the Electoral Commissioner, or via the commission’s website or telephone number, in accordance with the directions of the Electoral Commissioner.
That it be an offence for any person not authorised by the Electoral Commissioner to distribute postal vote applications, or to publicise or provide any alternative methods of applying for a postal vote, or any information that an elector could reasonably misconstrue as an alternative method of applying for a postal vote.
FIND OUT MOREHarmonising the register of declaration voters
Legislation impacted: s 73, s 74
That the Electoral Act be amended to change the name ‘registered declaration voter’ to ‘general postal voter’ and to harmonise the eligibility criteria of the registered declaration voter program with the criteria of the Commonwealth general postal voter program.
FIND OUT MOREEligibility criteria for early voting
Legislation impacted: s 71
That the Electoral Act be amended to remove eligibility criteria for early voting to allow any enrolled elector to opt for convenience voting at an early voting centre in the fortnight prior to polling day.
FIND OUT MOREEncouragement of voting on polling day
Legislation impacted: s 8
That the Electoral Act be amended to remove the direction for the Electoral Commissioner to encourage the casting of votes at a polling booth on polling day.
FIND OUT MOREIssuing ordinary votes at early voting centres
Legislation impacted: s 71, s 78
That the Electoral Act be amended so that ordinary votes may be issued to electors at early voting centres that have been designated for their electoral district.
FIND OUT MOREMobile polling
Legislation impacted: s 77
That the Electoral Act be amended to remove references to places within a remote subdivision to allow the Electoral Commissioner to establish mobile polling booths at any location in the state which he or she deems appropriate.
FIND OUT MOREDeclared institutions
Legislation impacted: s 83
That the Electoral Act be amended to abolish section 83 concerning declared institutions and electoral visitors, which will be replaced instead by mobile polling teams able to visit and take votes at any location that the Electoral Commissioner deems appropriate.
FIND OUT MOREIssuing ordinary votes to absent voters
Legislation impacted: s 71, s 73, s 79, s 95, s 96
That the Electoral Act be amended to eliminate the requirement to issue a declaration vote to electors voting at a polling place not designated for their specific electoral district, provided they can be found and marked off the electronic roll. This applies to both polling day voters and early voters (if Recommendation 14 is taken up by Parliament).
FIND OUT MORECounting ordinary early votes on polling day
Legislation impacted: s 89, s 95, s 96
That the Electoral Act be amended to allow the scrutiny to commence before the close of polling so that ordinary votes cast by electors at early voting centres that have been designated for their electoral district (if Recommendation 14 is taken up by Parliament) can be scrutinised and counted on polling day under suitably tight security conditions to guarantee the secrecy of the count until after the close of poll.
FIND OUT MOREProperly staffed polling booths to be provided for districts
Legislation impacted: s 65
That the Electoral Act be amended to provide the returning officer with the ability to establish a polling booth at each polling place ‘for’ the district rather than ‘within’ the district to allow the establishment of polling booths outside the district.
This will assist with polling for a by-election when a suitable polling location may exist outside of the designated district.
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