New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTORATES AND ELECTIONS ACT 1912 - SECT 114P

114P Application for permission to vote before polling day

(1) An elector who:

(a) will not throughout the hours of polling on polling day be within New South Wales,

(b) will not throughout the hours of polling on polling day be within eight kilometres by the nearest practicable route of any polling booth open for the purposes of the election,

(c) will throughout the hours of polling on polling day be travelling under conditions which will preclude him or her from voting at any polling booth,

(d) by reason of his or her membership of a religious order or his or her religious beliefs:

(i) is precluded from attending at a polling booth, or

(ii) will be precluded from voting throughout the hours of polling on polling day or throughout the greater part of those hours,

(e) will be, at a place other than a hospital, caring for a person who is seriously ill or infirm or approaching maternity and by reason of caring for the person will be precluded from attending at any polling booth to vote,

(f) will, by reason of being engaged for fee, gain or reward in any work throughout the hours of polling on polling day, be precluded from attending at any polling booth to vote,

(g) is a silent elector,

(h) is a person with a disability (within the meaning of the Anti-Discrimination Act 1977 ), or

(i) believes that attending a polling place on polling day will place the personal safety of the person or of members of the person’s family at risk,

may make an application to any pre-poll voting officer (whether for the district for which he or she is enrolled or for some other district) for permission to vote before polling day.

(2) An application under subsection (1) shall:

(a) be made by the elector in person, and

(d) be made between noon on the day of nomination and 6 pm on the day preceding polling day to a pre-poll voting officer:

(i) at the office of a returning officer during the ordinary business hours of that office, or

(ii) at a place, and during hours, respectively appointed under subsection (6).

(2A) The elector making an application under subsection (1) must inform the pre-poll voting officer to whom the application is made of:

(a) the district for which the elector is enrolled, and

(b) the ground on which the elector is making the application, and

(c) any matters prescribed by the regulations.

(3) An elector must not in or in connection with an application under subsection (1) make any statement to a pre-poll voting officer that is, to the knowledge of the elector, false or misleading as to a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.

(4) A person must not persuade or induce an elector to make any statement to a pre-poll voting officer in or in connection with an application under subsection (1) that is, to the knowledge of that person, false or misleading as to a material particular.

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.

(5) A person shall not:

(a) persuade or induce, or

(b) associate with any other person in persuading or inducing,

an elector to make an application under subsection (1).

Maximum penalty: 10 penalty units or imprisonment for 6 months, or both.

(6) The Electoral Commissioner may appoint places (whether within or outside the State and whether in Australia or overseas) and hours for the purposes of this section. Notice of any appointment under this subsection is to be published on the Commission’s internet website at a time determined by the Electoral Commissioner.