New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTORATES AND ELECTIONS ACT 1912 - SECT 114Q

114Q Procedure for voting before polling day-voting other than in elector’s district (including outside NSW)

(1A) This section applies to voting under this Division where:

(a) an elector makes an application under section 114P at a pre-poll voting place in the State and the elector is not enrolled for the district in which the pre-poll voting place is situated, or

(b) an elector makes an application under section 114P at a pre-poll voting place not in the State.

(1) Where an application is made to a pre-poll voting officer in accordance with section 114P, he or she may, and, if requested to do so by any scrutineer, shall, put to the elector who made the application any of the questions prescribed by section 100 (1) which are applicable to the case, and, if the elector answers the questions satisfactorily or if no questions are put to the elector, the elector shall, after making a declaration in the approved form, be permitted to vote.

(2) The form of declaration shall be either printed or written on an envelope and shall, after being filled in, be signed by the elector in the presence of the pre-poll voting officer who shall then witness the elector’s signature.

(3) Subject to subsection (4), the pre-poll voting officer shall then hand to the elector a ballot paper that is in or to the effect of the form prescribed in Schedule 4 or ballot papers one of which is in or to the effect of the form prescribed in Schedule 4 and the other of which is in or to the effect of the form prescribed in Schedule 4A, as the case may require, and on receiving any such ballot paper, the elector shall:

(a) mark his or her vote on the ballot paper in accordance with the directions thereon in the view of the pre-poll voting officer but so that the pre-poll voting officer is unable to see what marks he or she makes on the ballot paper,

(b) fold the ballot paper so that the marks made by him or her cannot be seen, and

(c) at once return the ballot paper so folded to the pre-poll voting officer.

(4) Before handing a ballot paper for an election for the Assembly to the elector under subsection (3), the pre-poll voting officer shall:

(a) if the particulars of the candidates are not already printed on it, enter on the ballot paper:

(i) the name of the electoral district for which the elector has declared that he or she is enrolled, and

(ii) the names of the candidates for that district in the order in which those names were drawn by ballot held pursuant to section 82A, and

(iii) if required by Division 6B, the names of registered parties or the word “Independent”, and

(b) initial the front of the ballot paper.

(4A) The pre-poll voting officer shall not, for the purposes of subsection (3), hand an elector a ballot paper for a periodic Council election on which particulars relating to the candidates are not already printed until the returning officer has been notified of those particulars in accordance with section 81H (4) (b) and has entered those particulars on the ballot papers in the manner specified in that notification.

(5) On any such ballot paper being returned to him or her in accordance with subsection (3) (c), the pre-poll voting officer shall:

(a) in the presence of the elector, enclose it in the envelope bearing the elector’s declaration and securely fasten the envelope, and

(b) subject to section 114QA, retain the envelope and ballot paper until the close of the poll.

(7) An authorised witness shall not, in any way, influence or attempt to influence the vote of an elector voting under this section.

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