In our last editorial, we wrote that Electoral Reform Australia had made a submission to the Commonwealth Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) in relation to a proposed change to the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918 which would mean that all ballots in a prematurely opened ballot box would be excluded from the count.
We are pleased to say that the JSCEM took our concerns into consideration in their final report, which referred to our written submission and the oral evidence given by Electoral Reform Australia Vice President Stephen Lesslie. (The minority report also drew heavily on our submissions.)
As a result, the new section 238B requires the AEC to include ballots from a prematurely opened ballot box, unless they are satisfied that the ballots have been tampered with.
This new provision ensures the integrity of the electoral system is maintained, but does not result in the unnecessary exclusion of ballots that could have occurred under the initial draft legislation.
On the matter of prematurely opened ballot boxes I was scrutineering at the 1974 election at the polling booth at Northcote High School in Batman federal electorate, the only time I have ever scrutineered at that booth.
There were elections that year for the House and a full Senate election, as it was a double dissolution, and four referendums if I remember correctly.
There was not enough room for the ballot boxes to hold all of the ballot papers. More voters than had been considered likely to vote at that booth voted and the Commonwealth Electoral Office, as it was then called, did not provide enough ballot boxes.
Many of the ballot papers were placed in plastic bags. Not to have done so would have meant turning people away from that polling booth.
I have never seen that happen before or since.
I no longer scrutineer at federal and state elections, although I did scrutineer at the count for the last local government elections.
Hope you find this little bit of trivia to be of interest.
I think to exclude ballot papers just because the box is opened prematurely is ridiculous.
I conducted an election at a TAFE College in Victoria once in which I had to open the ballot box because no more ballot papers could fit into it. No ballot papers were tampered with.
Lyle Allan