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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 11 Hansard (28 November) . . Page.. 3258 ..

MR STANHOPE (Leader of the Opposition) (11.20): Mr Speaker, this bill will allow electronic voting at polling booths, the data entry of paper ballots, and electronic counting of votes in elections for the Assembly and in referendums. If the changes are to apply for the next election, the bill will have to pass this year, yet the Attorney introduced this bill only on 18 October 2000 and we received the scrutiny report only today.

Under this bill, the Electoral Commissioner may approve a computer program to allow electronic voting and to scrutinise the vote. The commissioner may only approve a program if it meets a number of requirements; for example, voters can show their preferences starting at one, correct any mistakes, and vote informal if they wish. The bill provides for a ballot to be in an electronic form and for the commissioner to approve changes to the ballot to allow its display on a screen. Voters will retain the right to use the traditional ballot.

For the 2001 election, the commissioner proposes to have electronic voting available at the four pre-poll centres and at four of the larger centres on polling day. There would be perhaps 10 electronic stations in each centre. In a briefing for the Labor Party, the commissioner has outlined a possible way the process could go. That outline is, of course, speculative as the commissioner is yet to test the market to see what software and engineering options are available and possible.

When their selection is completed the voters will be asked to confirm their choice. Voters will not be able to submit an accidental informal vote, although they will be able to submit an informal vote if they wish. Once a vote is confirmed it will be saved to at least two separate locations on disk, may be printed out, and copies of the data will be stored as a backup.

The computers used by voters may be stand-alone or locally networked. The commissioner advises that they will not be connected to a network that can be hacked into. Data from the voting centres will be transferred to a central computer.

For the next election at least, most voters will continue to use paper ballots. On election night, paper ballots will be counted manually to first preferences. After polling day, instead of a manual recount, information from the paper ballots will be entered into an electronic database. The commissioner proposes that papers will be entered twice by different operators. The papers will be batched so that discrepancies can be detected and followed up. Scrutineers will be able to observe the data entry.

The electronic data will be used to distribute preferences. It will be used also for recounts and for determining casual vacancies. The bill also amends the Referendum (Machinery Provisions) Act 1994 to allow for electronic voting and counting in referendums.

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