New South Wales Consolidated Acts

PARLIAMENTARY ELECTORATES AND ELECTIONS ACT 1912 - SECT 87B

87B Mobile booths for pre-poll voting in remote districts

(1) Electoral Commissioner’s functions The Electoral Commissioner:

(a) may declare a district to be a remote district for the purposes of this section, and

(b) may determine the places in that district that a team will visit for the purposes of this section, and

(c) may determine the days and times when a team will visit those places (such a day must be after the day of nomination and before polling day or a day to which the polling is adjourned), and

(d) must take such steps as the Electoral Commissioner thinks fit to give public notice of:

(i) the places determined under paragraph (b), and

(ii) the days and times determined under paragraph (c) when a team will visit those places for the purposes of this section.

(2) Teams A team consists of 2 or more election officials, one of whom must be a pre-poll voting officer who is designated by the Electoral Commissioner as team leader. The team leader is to exercise the functions of the pre-poll voting officer under the following provisions of this section.

(3) Visits and variation of places, days or times A team must make a visit or visits as notified under subsection (1) (d), but, if the team is unable for reasonable cause, or the pre-poll voting officer considers it inappropriate, to make such a visit, the officer may substitute another place, day or time for the visit and, in that event, must:

(a) take such steps as he or she thinks fit to give public notice of the substituted place, day or time, and

(b) inform the Electoral Commissioner.

(4) Failure to visit does not invalidate election result Any failure by a team to make a visit in accordance with this section does not invalidate the result of the election.

(5) Voting At any time when a team is at a place for the purposes of taking votes under this section in an election:

(a) the pre-poll voting officer must have a pre-poll ballot box, ballot papers and such other things as are necessary for the votes of electors to be taken at the place, and

(b) every person at the place who is entitled to vote in the election for the remote district concerned is entitled to have his or her vote taken under this section, and

(c) for the purposes of, and in connection with, the taking of votes under this section:

(i) the place is taken to be a pre-poll voting place, and

(ii) the pre-poll voting officer is taken to be the pre-poll voting officer at that pre-poll voting place, and

(d) an elector’s vote is, so far as is reasonably practicable, to be taken and dealt with in all respects as if the vote were recorded at a pre-poll voting place under usual conditions, but section 114P is to be disregarded in relation to:

(i) the qualifications to vote before election day, and

(ii) pre-poll voting times.

(6) Ballot box to be secured and forwarded to returning officer At the end of the last visit made by a team for the purposes of this section, the pre-poll voting officer must, in the presence of any other election official assisting the officer and any scrutineers who are present:

(a) publicly close, fasten, seal and take charge of the ballot box used by the officer for the purposes of this section, and

(b) with the least possible delay, forward it for the purposes of scrutiny to the returning officer for the district concerned.

(7) Relationship of this section to other provisions In relation to a district declared by the Electoral Commissioner to be a remote district, and without affecting subsection (5) (d), the provisions of this section apply in addition to, and without derogation from, the application of any other provision of this Act. However, any such other provision applies with any necessary modifications.