DOCSLIB.ORG

VPARL2010 14No114

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
VPARL2010 14No114 Inquiry into the conduct of the 2010 Victorian state election and matters related thereto Report to Parliament Electoral Matters Committee May 2012 ORDERED TO BE PRINTED Victorian Government Printer 2012 Parliamentary Paper No. 114 Session 2010 - 2012 Parliament of Victoria Electoral Matters Committee Inquiry into the conduct of the 2010 Victorian state election and matters related thereto ISBN Print - 978-0-9872925-0-6 ISBN Online - 978-0-9872925-1-3 Table of Contents Committee Members .......................................................................................... vii Staff...................................................................................................................... vii The Electoral Matters Committee..................................................................... viii Terms of Reference ............................................................................................. ix List of Recommendations.................................................................................... x Abbreviations...................................................................................................... xii Chair’s Foreword ............................................................................................... xiii Introduction...................................................................................... 1 Terms of reference – inquiry into 2010 Victorian state election....................... 1 Responsibilities of the Committee...................................................................... 1 Relationship with the Victorian Electoral Commission ............................................ 2 The Electoral Matters Committee and previous inquiries................................. 2 Inquiry process..................................................................................................... 3 Conduct of the inquiry – call for submissions.......................................................... 3 Submissions ........................................................................................................... 4 Public hearings ....................................................................................................... 5 Background briefings.............................................................................................. 5 Site visits ................................................................................................................ 6 By-elections ............................................................................................................ 7 Data analysis .......................................................................................................... 7 Feedback about the Committee’s inquiry........................................................... 7 Report Outline....................................................................................................... 9 Background to the 2010 Victorian state election ......................... 11 Election summary............................................................................................... 11 Victoria’s electoral system .................................................................................... 12 Summary of results............................................................................................... 13 Election indicators................................................................................................. 14 Election indicators – 2011 Broadmeadows District by-election and 2012 Niddrie District by-election .................................................................... 17 Legislative changes prior to the 2010 Victorian state election....................... 17 Electoral Amendment (Electoral Participation) Act 2010 (Vic) .............................. 18 2010 Victorian state election inquiry in context............................................... 20 Trends from the 2010 Victorian state election ................................................. 23 “Shaping Victoria’s electoral future” – VEC’s position paper................................. 25 A new design for electoral administration..................................................... 26 Electoral enrolment at the 2010 Victorian state election ............ 29 Definition of electoral enrolment....................................................................... 29 Special enrolment options .................................................................................... 30 iii VEC enrolment services..................................................................................... 33 Continuous Roll Update (CRU)............................................................................. 33 Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority ................................................... 34 Other strategic programs ...................................................................................... 35 VEC’s electoral enrolment strategies for 2011-2012............................................. 35 Enrolment statistics at the 2010 Victorian state election ................................ 35 Enrolment at the 2010 Victorian state election...................................................... 35 Enrolment in Victoria in 2011 ................................................................................ 36 Youth enrolment in Victoria................................................................................... 37 Automatic enrolment at the 2010 Victorian state election .............................. 39 Automatic enrolment in practice – 2010 Victorian state election........................... 40 Automatic enrolment – 2011-2014........................................................................ 41 Recommendations about automatic enrolment..................................................... 41 Declining electoral enrolment in Victoria ......................................................... 42 Recommendations relating to enrolment in Victoria.............................................. 43 Close of roll .................................................................................................. 43 Enforcement of compulsory enrolment ......................................................... 46 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 49 Voter turnout at the 2010 Victorian state election .......................51 Definition of voter turnout.................................................................................. 51 Arrangements for voting on election day ......................................................... 51 Voting centres....................................................................................................... 52 Inquiry participants’ views about voting centres ........................................... 53 Joint voting centres............................................................................................... 58 Provisional voting.................................................................................................. 59 Voting services before election day.................................................................. 60 Early voting centre locations at the 2010 Victorian state election ......................... 61 Advertising for early voting at Victorian state elections ......................................... 62 Interstate, overseas and Antarctic electors ........................................................... 62 Mobile early voting................................................................................................ 63 Postal voting ......................................................................................................... 64 Recommendations about postal voting......................................................... 66 Voter turnout at the 2010 Victorian state election............................................ 71 Why does voter turnout matter?............................................................................ 72 Trends in voter turnout at the 2010 Victorian state election .................................. 73 Declining voter turnout in Victoria................................................................. 73 Increase in early voting................................................................................. 75 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 83 Informal voting at the 2010 Victorian state election.....................85 Definition of informal voting .............................................................................. 85 Formality advice for Victorian state elections........................................................ 86 Informal voting at the 2010 Victorian state election ........................................ 87 iv Evidence from inquiry participants about informal voting...................................... 90 VEC’s survey of informal voting ................................................................... 90 Evidence about strategies to reduce informal voting.................................... 94 Conclusion .......................................................................................................... 99 Electronic voting at the 2010 Victorian state election............... 101 Background to electronic voting in Victoria .................................................. 101 What is electronic voting?..................................................................................
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry Into the Conduct of the 2013 Federal Election
    11 April 2014 Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Parliament House Canberra ACT Please find attached my submission to the Committee's inquiry into the conduct of the 2013 federal election. In my submission I make suggestions for changes to political party registration under the Commonwealth Electoral Act. I also suggest major changes to Senate's electoral system given the evident problems at lasty year's election as well as this year's re-run of the Western Australian Senate election. I also make modest suggestions for changes to formality rules for House of Representatives elections. I have attached a substantial appendix outlining past research on NSW Legislative Council Elections. This includes ballot paper surveys from 1999 and research on exhaustion rates under the new above the line optional preferential voting system used since 2003. I can provide the committee with further research on the NSW Legislative Council system, as well as some ballot paper research I have been carrying out on the 2013 Senate election. I am happy to discuss my submission with the Committee at a hearing. Yours, Antony Green Election Analyst Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2013 Federal Election Antony Green Contents Page 1. Political Party Registration 1 2. Changes to the Senate's Electoral System 7 2.1 Allow Optional Preferential Voting below the line 8 2.2 Above the Line Optional Preferential Voting 9 2.3 Hare Clark 10 2.4 Hybrid Group Ticket Option 10 2.5 Full Preferential Voting Above the Line 11 2.6 Threshold Quotas 11 2.7 Optional Preferential Voting with a Re-calculating Quota 12 2.8 Changes to Formula 12 2.9 My Suggested Solution 13 3.
    [Show full text]
  • NT Senate Group Voting Tickets
    INDEX Group Ticket(s) Page A – PALMER UNITED PARTY 1 1 B – UNITING AUSTRALIA PARTY 1 2 C – STABLE POPULATION PARTY 3 3-5 D – A.F.N.P.P 1 6 NT E – COUNTRY LIBERALS (NT) 1 7 Senate Group Voting Tickets F – AUSTRALIAN LABOR PARTY (NORTHERN TERRITORY) BRANCH 1 8 G – SEX PARTY 1 9 H – CITIZENS ELECTORAL COUNCIL 2 10-11 I – SHOOTERS AND FISHERS 1 12 This booklet sets out copies of all group voting tickets which J – RISE UP AUSTRALIA PARTY 1 13 have been lodged in NT for the 2013 Senate Election. K – AUSTRALIAN GREENS 1 14 If you place the single figure 1 in one of the boxes above the L – AUSTRALIAN INDEPENDENTS 1 15 line for the party or group of your choice, you will have voted according to the VOTING TICKET(S) lodged by your party or group as set out in this booklet. Where a party, group or candidate has lodged 2 or 3 VOTING TICKETS, the total number of group ticket votes received by that group or candidate will be distributed evenly in accordance with those voting tickets. © Commonwealth of Australia 2013 Group Voting Ticket – Election of two (2) Senators Group A – PALMER UNITED PARTY – Ticket 1 of 1 Group A – PALMER UNITED PARTY – Ticket 1 of 1 By placing the single figure 1 in the square next to the name of this group, you adopt the ticket as marked below. A B C D E F G H I J K L 1 or or or or or or or or or or or PALMER UNITED UNITING STABLE A.F.N.P.P.
    [Show full text]
  • Page 1 of 11 Inquiry Into and Report on All Aspects
    The Hon Mr Tony Smith MP Chair, Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters PO Box 6021 PARLIAMENT HOUSE ACT 2600 7 April 2014 Dear Mr Smith Inquiry into and report on all aspects of the conduct of the 2013 Federal Election and matters related thereto A healthy political philosophy reflects a balanced view across many social issues. There once was a time whereby parliaments using the Westminster system consisted of progressive local representatives with a broad gamut of individual special interests. Today this type of representative is labelled as ‘single issue’ or ‘independent’ and big parties have become dominate for convenience of getting laws passed. I was a senate candidate for a micro party in the federal election on 7 September 2013. The party I represented was not a front party, not aligned with any existing political party or Member of Parliament. We were a member of the Minor Party Alliance and lodged a Group Voting Ticket. Political parties are responsible for social and national development. Misinformed and misguided choices at the ballot box can produce hazardous consequences for our society and we all then have to live with those consequences, at least for a period of time. Many millions of Australians have never been a member of any political party. The membership numbers for the major parties is said to be around 80,000 Liberal and 35,000 Labor. Yet in elections around 10 million people vote for these two parties. This situation needs to be challenged. Voters over generations have been trained to vote for one of two camps.
    [Show full text]
  • Australian Greens Victoria GPO Box 4589 MELBOURNE VIC 3001 The
    EMC Submission No. 87 Received 30 August 2019 Australian Greens Victoria GPO Box 4589 MELBOURNE VIC 3001 The Executive OFFicer Electoral Matters Committee Parliament House, Spring Street EAST MELBOURNE VIC 3002 30 August 2019 Dear Members oF the Electoral Matters Committee and Executive OFFicer, Please Find attached the submission From the Australian Greens Victoria to your inquiry into the conduct of the 2018 State Election. We are willing to provide more inFormation and expand on any issues raised in this submission as the Committee desires. Kind regards, Rohan Leppert Acting State Director Australian Greens Victoria SUBMISSION By the Australian Greens Victoria To the Electoral Matters Committee’s inquiry into the conduct of the 2018 State Election 1. We welcome the opportunity to provide a submission to the Electoral Matters Committee (the Committee) on the conduct of the 2018 State Election. Our submission is divided into Five themes: 1 - The distortion oF the democratic will oF voters by Group Voting Tickets in the Legislative Council. 2 - Victoria’s two-speed population growth will require a review of the Legislative Council electoral structure. 3 - The role oF Victorian Electoral Commission staFF and Victoria Police in relation to ofFences under the Electoral Act. 4 - The counting and storage oF prepoll votes. 5 - Authorisation oF online political communications. PART ONE: The distortion of the democratic will of voters by Group Voting Tickets in the Legislative Council. 2. The Constitution (Parliamentary Reform) Act 2003 was the most comprehensive reForm of Victoria’s Parliament since its inception in 1856. It amended the Victorian Constitution and the Electoral Act to, among other things, introduce a new electoral structure and voting method For the Legislative Council.
    [Show full text]
  • Pdf (572.33Kb)
    Dear Mr McCusker, Please find attached Enhancing Democracy in Western Australia, my submission to the review of the Western Australian Legislative Council electoral system. I am happy for it to be made public. Yours sincerely, Chris Curtis Enhancing Democracy in Western Australia Chris Curtis May 2021 The manufactured hysteria that greeted Ricky Muir’s election to the Senate and that ultimately led to the Turnbull government’s rigging the Senate voting system to favour the Greens over the micro-parties is getting an encore performance with the election of Wilson Tucker in Western Australia, despite the unremarked-upon election in both jurisdictions of many more candidates of major parties from even lower primary votes and with the added twist that most members of the panel established to investigate the matter have already endorsed, even promoted, the hysteria (https://insidestory.org.au/an-affront-to-anyone-who- believes-in-democracy/). While it is clear from this fact that submissions in support of logic and democracy have already been ruled out of consideration, it is worthwhile putting them on the public record for future historians to refer to and so that more reasonable politicians can revisit the issue if the hysteria dies down. Enhancing Democracy in Western Australia 2 Contents Purpose - - - - - - - - - - 3 Summary - - - - - - - - - - 3 1. Principles - - - - - - - - - - 5 2. The Single Transferable Vote - - - - - - - 6 3. The Irrational Complaints - - - - - - - 11 4. Party Preferences - - - - - - - - - 15 5. Imposing a Party List System - - - - - - - 17 6. The Value of Group Voting Tickets - - - - - - 18 7. The Real Issue and the Solution - - - - - - - 20 8. Personal How-to-Vote Website - - - - - - - 22 9.
    [Show full text]
  • THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry Into the 2013 Federal Election
    THE AUSTRALIAN GREENS Submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters Inquiry into the 2013 Federal Election INTRODUCTION Most of the attention for this inquiry has been centred on reforming the election of the Senate. This submission will address that, but the Australian Greens believe that there are broader issues with our electoral system that need addressing. A key policy concern of the Greens is the reform of the electoral system to increase fairness, equity, transparency and accountability. This submission includes a number of recommendations in relation to the recent federal election which address these concerns. 1. ELECTION FUNDING 1.1 Public Funding for elections The Greens believe that undue influence and problems of corruption arise from unchecked private funding of election campaigns. To that end, the Greens call for the adoption of electoral funding similar to the pre‐ 2011 Canadian system with a ban on corporate donations, a cap on individual donations and public funding for political parties which includes party administration and broadcasting time in federal elections. We maintain our view that the current laws on political donations are unfair and counterproductive to the democratic process and believe that the pre‐2011 Canadian system of electoral funding – that is primarily publicly funded elections, caps on campaign expenditure (including by third parties), capped individual donations and a ban on corporate donations ‐ is the best and more democratically fair approach. The Greens also support a rigorous regime for disclosure of electoral funding, believing that this is essential to ensure accountability and transparency in the system. The current system, which has a very high disclosure threshold currently set at $12 400, permits substantial areas of funding to avoid proper scrutiny through the disclosure requirements of the Electoral Act.
    [Show full text]
  • Please Find Attached My Submission to the Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform
    Please find attached my submission to the Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform. William Bowe Submission to Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform Firstly, I would like to add my support to the objective of achieving greater electoral equality through reform to the group voting ticket system and rural malapportionment for the Legislative Council, which are inconsistent with the principle that representative democracy should reflect the purposely expressed will of voters on an equal basis. However, since these arguments will be made more than adequately by others, the intention of my submission is to provide some analysis of the likely electoral impact of reforms along the lines of those introduced for the Senate in 2016. This will be done through comparison of the two federal elections held since these reforms were introduced, namely the double dissolution election of 2016 and half-Senate election of 2019, and the last half- Senate election held under the group voting ticket system in 2013. At the end of this submission are two tables, identified as Table 1 and Table 2, which illustrate how preferences flowed from the early to the final stages of the Senate election counts in Western Australia in 2013 and Tasmania in 2019. I have been unable to complete an equivalent analysis for Western Australia in 2019 before the deadline for submissions, but can provide one at a later time. While the former result was voided due to the loss of 1,375 ballot papers during a recount, it remains a better illustration of the effect of the group voting ticket system than the special election that followed in April 2014, since the provisional election of Wayne Dropulich of the Australian Sports Party from 0.23% of the vote on the earlier occasion is a notable example of the potential for group voting tickets to produce perverse results.
    [Show full text]
  • Submission Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform
    Submission Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform June 2021 About WALGA The Western Australian Local Government Association (WALGA or ‘the Association’) is the peak organisation for Local Government in Western Australia. The Association is an independent, membership-based group representing and supporting the work and interests of 137 mainland Local Governments in Western Australia, plus the Indian Ocean Territories of Christmas Island and Cocos (Keeling) Islands. The Association provides an essential voice for more than 1,200 Elected Members, more than 22,000 Local Government employees, and the 2.6 million constituents that they serve and represent. The Association also provides professional advice and offers services that provide financial benefits to Local Governments. Contacts Nick Sloan Chief Executive Officer Tony Brown Executive Manager Governance and Organisational Services Tim Lane Manager Strategy and Association Governance WALGA ONE70, LV1, 170 Railway Parade, West Leederville, WA, 6007 PO Box 1544, West Perth, WA, 6872 (p) (08) 9213 2000 | (e) [email protected] www.walga.asn.au 2 Contents About WALGA ................................................................................................................... 2 Contacts .......................................................................................................................... 2 Contents ............................................................................................................................ 3 Background ......................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016 Submission 85
    SUBMISSION TO JOINT STANDING COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL MATTERS CONCERNING CERTAIN ONEROUS PROVISIONS OF THE COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL AMENDMENT BILL 2016 by Peter Breen The autumn sitting of the federal parliament in 2016 got off to a frosty start for independent and minor party candidates thinking about a tilt at a seat in the Senate later in the year. There were mutterings from the political pundits about legislation to freeze out the small players, but it seemed to be too late in the election cycle to do anything serious about the voting system. The Senate would just have to live with interlopers such as the motoring enthusiast party‟s Ricky Muir. And then last week the government introduced the Commonwealth Electoral Amendment Bill 2016 into Parliament. Legislators confirmed the worst fears of potential independent and minor party candidates: the proposed new law unashamedly promotes the political interests of the Liberal Party of Australia. Above the line voting The problem with asking voters to write „at least the numbers 1 to 6‟ in the boxes above the line is that the vast majority of voters will place the number 1 in one box only and it will be a valid vote. In this way the compulsory preferential voting system that has served us well for 30 years will effectively be turned into first past- the-post or winner-take-all voting. This means the major parties – the Coalition, Labor, the Greens and the occasional Xenophon – will dominate the ballot paper. Furthermore, as the dominant Coalition party and recipient of the largest number of primary votes, the Liberal Party of Australia will be the major beneficiary of this provision.
    [Show full text]
  • Submission to the Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform the System Used for the Election of Members to the Western Australian Legislative Council
    Hello, please find attached my submission to the Ministerial Expert Committee on Electoral Reform the system used for the election of members to the Western Australian Legislative Council. Acknowledgement of receipt of my emailed submission is appreciated by return email at your earliest convenience. Thank you. Regards Dr Kelvin Matthews The Chair - Hon. Malcolm McCusker QC AO Members - Professor John Phillimore, Professor Martin Drum and Dr Sarah Murray Expert Committee on Electoral Reform to Review the Electoral System for the WA Legislative Council Parliament House - Western Australia 27 May 2021 Dear Committee Members SUBMISSION TO THE EXPERT PANEL COMMITTEE ON ELECTORAL REFORM TO REVIEW THE ELECTORAL SYSTEM FOR THE WA LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Thank you for the opporhmity of providing my submission to the Expert Committee on Electoral Reform to Review the Electoral System for the WA Legislative Council. I make this submission as an individual holding academic qualifications from Notre Dame University (PHD), Deakin University (MA), Murdoch University (PG Dip and BA), as well as current membership of the Australasian Parliamentary Study Group (ASPG) WA Chapter. My qualifications are supported by over thirty years practical professional experience in local government senior management roles. Introduction and Background I preface my submission in the context of representative democracy and where I consider that the franchise of representative democracy is central to the idea of representational outcomes. That is, my submission is intended to reinforce the principles of representative democracy to the committee when reviewing the current electoral system of the WA Legislative Council. My submission addresses the Terms of Reference where the terms of reference are noted in italic with my submission response to each of the terms.
    [Show full text]
  • Proportional Representation Society of Australia (Victoria-Tasmania) Inc. Submission to the Victorian Parliament's Electoral M
    EMC Submission No. 67 Received 30 August 2019 Proportional Representation Society of Australia (Victoria-Tasmania) Inc. www.prsa.org.au ABN 1 010 090 247 A0048538N Victoria 29 August 2019 Submission to the Victorian Parliament’s Electoral Matters Committee’s Inquiry into the Conduct of the 2018 State Election 1. Introduction: This submission to the above Inquiry by the Victoria-Tasmania Branch of the Proportional Representation Society of Australia deals in detail with the Victorian Legislative Council, the House of Parliament in which the range of opinions expressed by voters is represented most fairly and accurately. Table 1 below, which compares the overall percentages of first preference votes received and the percentage of seats won, shows that the Legislative Council corresponds to the will of the voters in party terms much more closely than the Legislative Assembly does. A copy appears at http://www.prsa.org.au/2019-08-29_electoral_matters_committee_submission.pdf Legislative Council Legislative Assembly Party No. of % of % of first No. of % of % of first seats seats preference vote seats seats preference vote ALP 18 45.0% 39.2% 55 62.5% 42.9% Liberal-National coalition 11 27.5% 29.4% 27 30.7% 35.2% Greens 1 2.5% 9.3% 3 3.4% 10.7% Others 10 25.0% 22.1% 3 3.4% 11.2% Table 1: Comparison of percentages of seats and votes for the two houses Note: The Liberal Party and the National Party had common tickets in some Legislative Council regions. Therefore, for the purpose of this submission, they are listed together throughout.
    [Show full text]
  • The New Senate Voting System and the 2016 Election
    RESEARCH PAPER SERIES, 2017–18 25 JANUARY 2018 The new Senate voting system and the 2016 election Dr Damon Muller Politics and Public Administration Section Executive summary • In 2016 the Senate voting system was changed to remove the use of group voting tickets; and to require voters to allocate six or more preferences above the line or twelve or more below the line on the ballot paper. The 2016 federal election—a double dissolution election—was the first to be conducted under the new system. • The change resulted from recommendations from an inquiry by the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters into the 2013 federal election, largely in response to the number of candidates being elected to the Senate from small and unknown parties on very low first preference votes. However, the changes were only legislated late in the parliamentary term, not long before the double dissolution election was held. • A High Court challenge was launched almost immediately in response to the changes to the Senate voting system; however, the Court rapidly and comprehensively dismissed the case. • When it was introduced, the new Senate voting system was criticised for a number of perceived problems, including that most voters would continue to vote 1 above the line; that the informality rate would be high; that many more votes would exhaust and not be counted; and that small parties would have no chance of election. • None of these anticipated problems presented in the course of the 2016 election. Voters quickly adapted to the new system; informal voting rose only a small amount; and that the Australian Electoral Commission was able to implement the new system and count the votes with no major issues eventuating.
    [Show full text]