Rules governing polling officials and scrutineers need to be tightened to avoid the mismanagement of ballot papers that led to the 2013 Senate election in Western Australia being rerun, a parliamentary committee has said.
And it recommends voters should have to produce identification before being given a ballot paper in future elections.
The joint standing committee on electoral matters on Wednesday handed down its final report into the federal election. It contains 24 recommendations.
The WA Senate result was invalidated due to the loss of 1,370 ballot papers, prompting a second election months after the September 2013 poll.
The committee recommended that the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) develop formal qualifications or certification for polling officials. It said polling staff, many of whom are employed by the AEC on a casual basis, should undertake training before election day, and that key performance indicators be set to ensure that senior staff completed their duties appropriately.
Voters should show identification documents before having their names marked off the electoral role, similar to requirements in the last Queensland state ballot, it said. That might include a driver’s licence, passport, Medicare card, pensions card or recent utility bill.
In a dissenting report, three Labor committee members and Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said the ID requirements in Queensland had resulted in low voter turn out.
“It would appear that there may well be more serious implications for voter engagement for many groups of disadvantaged voters, including itinerant and Indigenous voters as well as those escaping domestic violence,” the dissenting report said. “It would be a pity to take actions that would impact on the involvement of these voters.”
The activist group GetUp warned that voter ID laws would adversely affect Indigenous voters.
There was “little evidence” that the measures would reduce voter fraud, the dissenting report said.
Other recommendations include making sure that the AEC provides pencils in polling booths, and that the broadcast media blackout on political advertising before elections be reviewed.
Voters should show identification documents before having their names marked off the electoral role, similar to requirements in the last Queensland state ballot, it said. That might include a driver’s licence, passport, Medicare card, pensions card or recent utility bill.
In a dissenting report, three Labor committee members and Greens senator Lee Rhiannon said the ID requirements in Queensland had resulted in low voter turn out.
“It would appear that there may well be more serious implications for voter engagement for many groups of disadvantaged voters, including itinerant and Indigenous voters as well as those escaping domestic violence,” the dissenting report said. “It would be a pity to take actions that would impact on the involvement of these voters.”
The activist group GetUp warned that voter ID laws would adversely affect Indigenous voters.
There was “little evidence” that the measures would reduce voter fraud, the dissenting report said.
The committee released an interim report in May last year, which recommended the adoption of optional preferential voting in the Senate and the abolition of group ticket voting.
‘The report also builds on the committee’s two interim reports on Senate voting practices and electronic voting options released in 2014,” the committee chairman, Liberal MP Tony Smith, said.
Minor parties have raised protests over the recommendations, which they say aim to lock them out of winning seats.
