New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTORATES AND ELECTIONS ACT 1912 - SECT 20

20 Qualification of electors

(1) Subject to sections 21 and 32-41, all persons:

(a) who have attained 18 years of age, and

(b) who are:

(i) Australian citizens, or

(ii) persons (other than Australian citizens) who would, if the relevant Commonwealth law had continued in force, be persons who have the status of a British subject and who were, immediately before 26 January 1984, enrolled as electors for the Assembly or enrolled in any other State or Territory of the Commonwealth as electors for the House of Representatives,

shall be entitled to enrolment.

(2) Subject to subsections (3) and (4) and section 21, an elector whose name is on the roll for a subdivision is entitled to vote at any election for the Assembly for the district.

(3) An elector:

(a) whose name has been placed on a roll in pursuance of a claim made under section 33A, and

(b) who has not attained 18 years of age on the date appointed for the taking of the poll for an election,

is not entitled to vote at that election.

(4) Notwithstanding section 33A or any enrolment in pursuance of a claim made under that section, for the purposes of this Act in its application in relation to an election, a person who has not attained 18 years of age on the date appointed for the taking of the poll for that election shall not be taken to be:

(a) entitled to be enrolled on a roll, or

(b) enrolled on a roll.

(5) A person is not entitled to vote more than once at any Assembly general election, by-election or periodic Council election, or at more than one election for the Assembly or Council held on the same day.

(6) An elector, other than a relevant elector, is not entitled to vote at an election as an elector of the subdivision of the district in respect of which the elector is enrolled unless the real place of living of the elector was, at some time within the 3 months immediately preceding polling day for that election, within that subdivision.

(7) Notwithstanding anything in this Act:

(a) an elector who has changed address to another place within the same subdivision, or to another subdivision of the same district, shall not be deemed by reason only of that change to be dispossessed of the qualification in respect of which the elector is enrolled, and

(b) an elector who, within 3 months before any election has changed address to another district, may vote at that election for the district for which the elector’s name appears on the roll as provided by this Act for the purposes of that election.

(8) In this section:
"relevant Commonwealth law" means the Australian Citizenship Act 1948 of the Commonwealth as amended and in force immediately before 1 May 1987 and the regulations in force immediately before that day under that Act as so amended and in force.
"relevant elector" means:

(a) an Antarctic elector,

(b) an eligible overseas elector, or

(c) an itinerant elector.