Picture this:
- The average electorate has 100,000 names on its voter list
- Elections are won on less than 30, 20, 12 or even 7 votes out of 100,000 votes
- Not everyone who votes is entitled to vote
- When Australians go to vote, they need to trust the rolls to trust the results.
The problems:
- Fake names
- Fake addresses
- Addresses not being physically checked door-to-door
Example
In NSW, on 13 September 2014:
- There were 102,427 electors enrolled at more than one address
- The NSW electoral roll showed 139,898 more electors than the federal roll
- Both voter lists should have been identical
Better ways must be found to make sure people listed on voter rolls:
- Are who they say they are
- Actually live at addresses where they claim to live
- Cannot temporarily enrol in other electorates for the purpose of an election
- Cannot be listed more than once on any voter list
- Cannot vote as someone else
- Cannot vote more than once in an election
Voter rolls are supposed to keep elections honest but:
- 1 in five Australians moves house every year on average
- Up to 60% of Australians moves house between federal elections.
- The law allows names to be added automatically but not removed automatically. They must be removed manually and only after phoney enrolments have been expressly contested by concerned citizens.
How do we fix this?
- If Australians want fair elections, then elections need better rules to stop people from voting more than once, voting as other electors and voting in multiple electorates during an election.
- Voter lists need to be checked more often door-to-door
- Australians should demand electronic certified lists in all polling places instead of paper lists
- Australians need to tell Canberra to change the legislation to allow enrolment of voters on the federal roll who are already on state rolls without needing signed enrolment forms.
- Australians need to tell their state governments to echo the federal legislation and give up maintaining state rolls.