Commonwealth Consolidated Acts

COMMONWEALTH ELECTORAL ACT 1918 - SECT 273A

Determination that computerised scrutiny applies

             (1)  The scrutiny of votes in a Senate election for a particular State or Territory may be conducted by complying with the requirements set out in this section.

Processing of ballot‑papers by Assistant Returning Officers

             (2)  Each Assistant Returning Officer must deal with ballot‑boxes and ballot‑papers in the manner required by subsection 273(2).

Processing of ballot‑papers by Divisional Returning Officers

             (3)  Each Divisional Returning Officer must deal as follows with all ballot‑papers received by him or her:

                     (a)  reject any of the wholly above‑the‑line ballot‑papers that are informal and arrange the unrejected ones into parcels by placing under the name of each candidate all the ballot‑papers on which a first preference is indicated for that candidate;

                     (b)  reject any informal ballot‑papers that have no mark at all on them, and any other ballot‑papers that are obviously informal, and place the rejected ballot‑papers in one or more parcels;

                     (c)  place in a parcel or parcels all the ballot‑papers received by the Divisional Returning Officer, other than:

                              (i)  the unrejected wholly above‑the‑line ballot‑papers; and

                             (ii)  the ballot‑papers rejected as informal;

                     (d)  seal up all the parcels and endorse on each parcel a description of the contents, and permit any scrutineers present, if they so desire, to countersign the endorsement;

                     (e)  as soon as possible, transmit the parcel or parcels referred to in paragraph (c) to the Australian Electoral Officer;

                      (f)  transmit the following information to the Australian Electoral Officer:

                              (i)  the number of first preference votes given for each candidate on unrejected wholly above‑the‑line ballot‑papers;

                             (ii)  the total number of ballot‑papers rejected as informal.

Processing of ballot‑papers received by Australian Electoral Officer

             (4)  The Australian Electoral Officer must scrutinise all the ballot‑papers received by him or her, and must reject the informal ones.

Determining election result

             (5)  The Australian Electoral Officer must then ascertain the successful candidates, and their order of election, by using a computer to apply the principles set out in subsections 273(8) to (32) (inclusive). A tie at any step in the process is to be resolved in the same way as a tie in the corresponding step is resolved under section 273.

Rights of scrutineers

             (6)  For proceedings under subsections (4) and (5) of this section, the requirements of paragraph 265(1)(c) are met if the scrutineers have access to:

                     (a)  a record of the preferences on the ballot‑papers that have been received by the Australian Electoral Officer and whose details have been stored in the computer (including informal ballot‑papers, and formal ballot‑papers that are not sequentially numbered); and

                     (b)  a record of the ballot‑papers that are notionally transferred, or exhausted, at each count; and

                     (c)  a record of the progress of the count of the votes, at each count.

Modified rules for re‑count

             (7)  If ballot‑papers that are to be re‑counted under section 278 are in the possession of the Australian Electoral Officer immediately before the re‑count begins, the Australian Electoral Officer must deal with those ballot‑papers as follows:

                     (a)  open the parcels (for those ballot‑papers that are in parcels) in the presence of a person appointed or engaged under the Public Service Act 1999 and of any scrutineer who attends;

                     (b)  scrutinise all the ballot‑papers, and make a decision on each one either to admit it or reject it;

                     (c)  after scrutinising all the ballot‑papers, restore the ones that were in parcels to their original covers, and place the remaining ballot‑papers in a parcel or parcels;

                     (d)  seal up all the parcels and write on each cover:

                              (i)  the number of ballot‑papers contained in the cover; and

                             (ii)  a statement that all the ballot‑papers have been the subject of decisions by the Australian Electoral Officer;

                     (e)  sign the cover of each parcel and permit other persons who were present when the ballot‑papers were scrutinised to add their signatures.

             (8)  If:

                     (a)  a re‑calculation by computer occurs following a re‑count; and

                     (b)  during the re‑calculation, the same tie that occurred on the previous calculation by computer occurs again;

for the purposes of the re‑calculation that tie is to be resolved in favour of the candidate in whose favour it was resolved during the previous calculation.

             (9)  If a re‑count is required under section 282, the Australian Electoral Officer must conduct the re‑count by using a computer to apply the principles set out in subsections 273(8) to (30) (inclusive), modified in the way set out in section 282.

Definitions

           (10)  In this section:

"dividing line" means the line on the ballot-paper that separates the voting method described in subsection 239(1) from the voting method described in subsection 239(2).

"wholly above-the-line ballot-paper" means a ballot-paper that:

                     (a)  has one or more numbers, ticks, crosses or other marks above the dividing line; and

                     (b)  has no marks on the ballot‑paper below the dividing line.