Elections - How voting works

Elections - How voting works chris wong, stephanie cuddon, Jono wong

Ballot Box • A temporary sealed container usually square with a rectangular slot to place in the ballot paper which prevents people to access it until the end of voting. Some ballot boxes and clear so the voters can witness that the boxes are empty at the start. Most of them are sealed by plastic strap seals or padlocks so that if someone tries to break in, it will be either be impossible to open or obviously been cut.

Ballot Paper The ballot paper is one of the most important components in the election process. It is used to make the wishes of the electors into a representative parliament. House of Reps: Called a preferential voting system where you number the candidates from 1 and so on until they are all filled in. Senate: There are 2 ways of filling this in. First you can put number one in a square above the black line or number all the boxes in preferential order below the line.

Steps • Step 1: Announcement Elections happen almost every three years. The prime minister chooses the date which it will be held and be approved by the Governor-General. The ballot papers will be printed and polling booths will be set up. • Step 2: Close of Rolls After the date has been announced, the writ is issued by the Governor-General to inform the Australian Electoral Office to start the election on the selected date. The rolls are closed for a few weeks so that the Australian Electoral Commission to get everything ready for election day. • Step 3: Nomination of Candidates The candidates who would like to be elected to the parliament have to nominate. The candidates must officially notify the Electoral Commission the they are standing for election. • Step 4: Election Campaign In this time, the candidates will be very active in trying to gain support and popularity among voters. During the campaign, the candidates will have a lot of public meetings, radio and TV interviews and also media advertising. All these activities are to convince the voters of who to vote for. The candidates will make many promises such as reducing taxes, granting benefits to the elderly or even boosting health care.

Steps • Step 5 Polling Day The Election day is always chosen to be on a Saturday with the voting locations open from 8am till 6pm. There are roughly 9000 polling locations across the country on the day. When first arrived, people have to give their name and address to the electoral official who will check you off on the roll and hand you the ballot papers, 1 for the House of Reps and the other for the Senate. They are filled in at the individual ballot boxes and put into the box for counting. In the House of Reps we use the preferential voting system by filling in the sheet as your preference at number 1 and the rest 2, 3 and so on. The Senate is a bit different and has 2 ways of filling in the form. Firstly, you can state your first preference above the black line on the sheet or secondly you can fill your preferences 1-4 or so on below the black line. • Step 6 Counting votes When the voting stops at 6pm the doors at the polling locations are closed. The counting of votes is then started though under strict conditions. Once the counting is done for every electorate, it is sent to the tally room. The results are usually known by late evening but sometimes it can take days to find a result. The Senate papers usually take longer to sort out (normally a few weeks).

Conditions of Voting • In prison if you are serving a sentence of less than three years you are entitled to enrol and vote if you are an Australian citizen and aged 18 years or older. • If you are serving for a longer period than 3 years you are not allowed to vote. • If you were enrolled when you started serving your sentence of less than three years, and are still currently enrolled, you are entitled to remain on the electoral roll at that address. • If you are overseas during the federal election period you may still cast your vote. You can vote while you are overseas either in person at an Australian Diplomatic Post or by post. • Voting in prison can be done by post or in person. The posting method includes you having to apply to become a GPV which means that you can vote at every election when they send you a ballot paper in the post. During an election, people can also vote when the AEC staff come around to set up polling facilities in prisons.

Bibliography • Google Images • Wikipedia (Voting, Ballot Box, Ballot Paper) • Justice, Money & Markets 5th Edition Book • http://www.aec.gov.au/About_AEC/Publications/Fact_Sheets/prisoner_voting.htm

Elections - How voting works