5 November 2024

Early voting boom is a risk to Australia's world-best electoral system

| Ian Bushnell
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An ACT voter does her civic duty on 19 October, but half the electorate voted early. Photo: Michelle Kroll.

I embraced early voting for its convenience, casting my pre-poll a week before election day.

It was uncrowded, quick and seamless, although I have to admit I unexpectedly changed the order of my preferences after my first attempt on the touchscreen.

No queues, party spruikers or sausage sizzles, just in and out and done.

Yet, there was something about it that was just a little sterile, less significant and the distinct difference in the pre-poll and election day votes in both the ACT and Queensland elections has given me second thoughts.

Both polls produced a 50:50 split in the vote. In the ACT, pre-polls favoured the Canberra Liberals and were posted first, while in Queensland, they came in about 9:30 pm and snuffed out any flicker of hope for Labor that the election day votes had kindled.

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I’m not saying the results in these elections would have been different without pre-poll voting.

Many will argue that the rusted-on supporters are more likely to use early voting and swingers will wait until a long as possible.

However, the doubt remains that two weeks, which can be a third of a campaign, is a long time before election day, and a lot can happen in those final days.

Late policy announcements, costings revelations, gaffes.

Queensland Labor’s strong surge at the back end of the campaign as the heavily favoured LNP faltered suggests that some early voters may have had buyer’s remorse.

In the ACT, the Canberra Liberals’ result could have been even worse, given a week before the poll that they would rather forget. Who knows, there could have been another independent.

All speculation, but if an election is to capture the will of the people at a certain point in time, then early voting, which only took hold because of the pandemic, starts to nibble away at this concept and its authority.

Is convenience enough of a reason to tamper with an electoral system that is arguably the safest, best run and fairest in the democratic world, which already has facilities for absentee and postal voting?

In the US, where elections are held on weekdays and are not run independently, queues can mean the difference between voting and not voting, so early voting is a necessity.

But in Australia, heading out to your local school hall to vote on a Saturday is hardly a chore, and while there may be a line, it doesn’t extend around the block and take hours to navigate.

The parties are already strategising about early voting and how to schedule the release of policies and the submission of costings for evaluation.

If early voting continues to gain popularity, what are the odds that unpopular or questionable policies, dodgy costings and bad news will left until after the two-week starting gate or as close as possible to election day?

Sometimes, it may feel like a campaign has been running for months, but it is only when the caretaker period kicks in that the rubber hits the road.

The other consequence that troubles me is a diminishment of election day as the primary point of decision for voters.

Australia has built, through compulsory voting, an electoral culture that fosters participation, a sense of occasion and respect for the communal civic action of choosing who represents and governs us.

We may not necessarily be fully engaged in between elections, but on the day, there is no doubt that, whatever the outcome, it is the right result.

Election day is one of the nation’s great festivals and a coming together; the community stalls and even the party supporters, with their how-to-vote information, contribute to that sense of occasion and legitimacy.

And yes, keeping party volunteers 100 metres from polling booths in ACT elections is unnecessary. I have never felt harassed or threatened, and everything has always been done with great civility and in the democratic spirit.

The primacy of election day should be preserved and the question of early voting needs to be addressed before it undermines this great communal rite.

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“The primacy of election day should be preserved and the question of early voting needs to be addressed before it undermines this great communal rite.”

If that’s the best you can come up with, Bushnell, it’s time to disconnect your keyboard from your computer and perhaps resort to ChatGPT to at least attempt to present a cogent argument.

HiddenDragon9:23 pm 04 Nov 24

In the case of politicians, continuous assessment is definitely better than making it all about the equivalent of a make or break final exam with last minute cramming – leave early voting alone.

Election was on 19 Oct.
Time to come out of hiding Shane.
Where the bloody hell are you ??

Gregg Heldon3:16 pm 04 Nov 24

Just get rid of the spuikers. 100m isn’t far enough away. I’f people need somebody shoving a piece of paper, in their hand or face as they’re walking into vote, then maybe they should have their right to vote taken away from them.

Spruikers have a place at every Canberra election………..Underneath Kings Avenue Bridge.

Thankfully Gregg Heldon the vast majority of Canberra voters are not miserable wowsers and do not hold the same attitudes as you. Those that hand out how-to-vote cards are volunteers using their time to advocate for their political party and what they believe in.

I am a volunteer who has delivered thousands of flyers to mailboxes around Canberra, made multiple phone calls to voters and spent the two weeks leading up to the election handing out how-to-vote cards. I have met many volunteers from opposing sides who were engaging, like-minded, smart and passionate in what they were doing, representing their parties and the candidates they believe in.

Handing out how-to-vote cards is one of the most important roles a person can make and makes a big difference with swinging voters. Not one voter I saw was rude to me or to any of the other volunteers. Many voters indicated that they had already made up their minds when walking into vote with others approaching volunteers or candidates to discuss policies or just to have a chat.

None of the volunteers I engaged with were intimidating or hassled voters, nor did anyone shove pieces of paper into anyone’s face.

Your call for volunteers to have their voting rights taken away is miserable and extreme!

Gregg Heldon7:42 am 05 Nov 24

You need to learn to read Harry. At no point did I say that volunteers should have their voting privileges taken away.
As your the rest of your diatribe, I’m happy that you enjoy your volunteer work. I, myself, volunteer for two very different community organisations. It’s something I’m passionate about.
Maybe you could have asked why I think we don’t need spruikers anymore or why I don’t like the practice. There’s a story there. I actually mentioned it in the other similar article published by The Riotact a few days ago, if you care to read it.
And I’m not miserable, or a wowser. I just have depression (amongst other things). My psychologist had me tested.

Good to see you have sorted out “spuikers” and “spruikers”.

Two totally and very different meanings.

Not to mention the rest of your miserable diatribe!

Gregg Heldon5:20 pm 05 Nov 24

That’s high standards of yours Harry. I mentioned that I’m passionate about something and you still say that I’m miserable.
Maybe it’s not me that’s miserable. Maybe you’re deflecting.

Ian Bushnell needs to recognise that the world has changed as have working hours and days for many people. These days it is essential to have the flexibility of early voting so all people have an opportunity to do it at a time that suits them given their other commitments.

However a week should be enough and not cause the problems that a fortnight of additional campaigning for volunteers and manning of voting booths causes.

It wouldn’t be hard to change the rules so that no new policies could be introduced once early voting starts.

GrumpyGrandpa1:25 pm 04 Nov 24

Anyone remember the days of media blackouts, I think it was 3 days, before a Federal election?
All of us early voters have effectively given ourselves a “3 day” media blackout. Once we’ve voted, last minute desperate election promises mean nothing.
Most of us know who we are voting for before election day and before some party volunteer attempts to force their How to Vote card on us.
As far as I’m concerned, Vote early!

Honestly democracy is already broken. We need a one man one votes system, this system where points are tallied on second third choices etc is flawed and favours the big parties. Also we need voter ID, Australia has grown to much to rely on honesty these days.

Man?

It is first-past-the-post which definitively favours large parties. STV is one of the most fairly representative systems currently used.

Andrew Murphie1:18 pm 04 Nov 24

I don’t usually pre-poll but only because I kind of forget. And was thinking I should. But I hadn’t thought about it this way. Lots of interesting points to think about! Thanks.

Douglas Hynd1:15 pm 04 Nov 24

Your argument is absolutely spot on -as a compromise reduce early voting to a week. That reduces the possibilities for parties to play games with the electorate.

Pre-polling for me 100% of the time. For JS, he knows I can’t stand pollies, so don’t want to listen to opinionated saps in the queue

Its no surprise that Rattenbury and the author want early voting scrapped and people only paying attention on or near poll day, if they payed attention and educated themselves throughout the previous term there is no way Barr and Rattenbury would be any where near government…

humans, while having innate worth, are not angels and therefore can’t be trusted too much – especially not when it comes to the dirty game of politics, which I think is getting dirtier by the day. As such, as many measures as possible need to be taken to remove the possibility of corruption, and I think early voting fails this, providing only greater room for dirty deeds to be done – and gradually refined over time.
This is especially important today as the lunatics on the left have very much gotten their poo-stained claws into the system, and will now do anything within their power to hold on tight, including or even especially election fraud.
The latter can be supported, I think, by the amount of cheating the left has already conducted, starting with the egregious intentional destruction of the time-tested pillars of society (such as patriotism and family) – while telling people that those things were the cause of all the problems (and never the sewer dwelling politicians etc)! – and ending with the suppression of medical reports that confirmed certain reassignment procedures were/are the pits – and all with the friggin’ support of the friggin’ media (or at least the lunatics on the left side of that institution; which isn’t to say the Right couldn’t be more conservative).
I am therefore thoroughly convinced that, as society becomes more left leaning – i.e. more looney – it is not surprising in the least that something so absolutely stupid as early voting should emerge, providing more room, as I already said, for corruption to unfold, which is room that won’t be sitting there empty for very long – not with the left and its victory at all costs mentality.

Vasily, pre-poll voting has always been part of ACT elections since 1989, and was introduced for federal elections in 1990, so it’s not something new to emerge, and it’s not biased towards one or the other end of the political spectrum. It just makes voting more convenient.

Elections ACT and the Australian Electoral Commission are NOT corrupt, and as the headline says we have a world’s best electoral system.

@Vasily M
“… something so absolutely stupid as early voting should emerge, providing more room, as I already said, for corruption to unfold …”

Yet another looney missive from you. Have you ever thought of providing evidence to support your offbeat monologues, or is it simply anough to be ‘the gospel according to Vasily M’.

Lame article really. Ian provided no credible evidence at all for his suggestion that voting early might somehow compromise our electoral system.

But he toed Barr and Rattenbury’s line like a good little minion

Greens complained about early voting and the 100m rule last week, so Ian writes “yeah, right-on” this week.

“then early voting, which only took hold because of the pandemic”.
No Ian, the percent of voters who pre-polled in the ACT elections was 14.7% in 2004, 20.3% in 2008, 26.9% in 2012, 33.7% in 2016, and greater than 40% in 2024 (final numbers not yet released). There has been a steady increase in the pre-poll vote for ACT elections that started well before the pandemic, and the pandemic year 2020 was an exception at 69.9%.

“And yes, keeping party volunteers 100 metres from polling booths in ACT elections is unnecessary. I have never felt harassed or threatened, and everything has always been done with great civility and in the democratic spirit.”
The 100m rule is part of the Hare-Clarke package introduced in 1995, and is an attempt to level the playing field between the large dominant parties who can swamp all polling places with volunteers and the minor parties and independents who don’t have many volunteers. Keeping all volunteers away brings equity to all the candidates.

The big issue this election was the lowest turnout on record. Average turnout over the past 10 ACT elections was 90.2%, with high of 92.8% (2004) and a low of 88.5% (2016), but this election turnout was just 86.8%. Why?

Mr Bushnell, I am delighted to hear you have not felt harassed by random people obtusely thrusting paper waste in your face as if you were incapable of making and recalling your own decisions. Far be it from me to disagree, but they can shove their sense of community while I am busy undertaking my individual democratic role in a secret ballot which is a real community contribution.

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