There’s a lot going on in Queensland today, so here’s a fresh blogpost to tide you over until polls close. There are multiple reports of voters being turned away due to a lack of ID (which shouldn’t stop them from voting), the LNP is pushing hard to encourage people to ‘just vote 1’, and the LNP is also attempting to stop GetUp! from handing out their how-to-vote cards.
Voter ID confusion on booths
There are multiple reports of people being turned away from voting due to lack of identification, despite the law allowing them to cast a vote.
The Townsville Bulletin has reported that people have been turned away in Burdekin, and itself misreports the story by claiming that ID is compulsory.
Here at the Tally Room I’ve received an email from a woman in Hervey Bay discussing people being turned away there, and I understand there are other reports.
GetUp! (disclaimer: I’m employed by GetUp!) are running a hotline to collect stories of these laws being implemented incorrectly, and to answer questions.
Just to clarify, while it is slightly easier to vote with ID, you can still vote without it.
LNP corflutes strongly pushing ‘just vote 1’
There appear to be multiple corflutes being used by the Liberal National Party to push their message that people should only number one box.
A plain ‘Just Vote 1’ corflute is being used in some places, in the same shade of maroon often used by the Electoral Commission of Queensland. There is no indication that is an LNP corflute apart from the authorisation.
This isn’t a new phenomenon. In 2009, I recorded similarly plain corflutes being used in Indooroopilly, where the LNP benefited from weak preference flows between Labor and the Greens (sadly the image has since been lost, but the post is here).
In another seat, this photo was taken showing an LNP corflute comparing the “Certainty” of the LNP versus the “Chaos” of directing preferences. Again, this appears to mislead voters by comparing the Queensland elections to Senate elections, despite huge differences in the electoral system.
Anti-LNP parties and groups have been working hard to encourage people to preference, and it will be interesting to see how that goes.
LNP goes to the Supreme Court to stop GetUp
Campaign group GetUp (again, they are my employer) is handing out how-to-vote cards in Queensland. GetUp’s how-to-vote cards encourage voters to vote for Labor or the Greens (and in one seat KAP) and then preference those other parties.
The HTV cards focus on issues around the Great Barrier Reef, and criticise the LNP’s policy on the Reef.
According to a media release from GetUp, the Liberal National Party is apparently seeking an injunction in the Queensland Supreme Court to block the how-to-votes, which are being distributed across a number of key electorates.
Update: it appears that the LNP was challenging GetUp how-to-votes as they had not been registered with the Electoral Commission. While parties and candidates are required to register how-to-votes in Queensland, third parties like GetUp are not obliged to do so, and the court case was dismissed.
PUP Party running out of friends
Apparently he couldn’t get enough volunteers to hand out HTV s so he has shut down the restaurants and most of the shops at his resort and are paying the staff to do it instead. Housekeeping and other staff as well.
Told to me by a mate who works there. He refused to do it so will probably be sacked soon
So the LNP are saying Getup’s HTVs aren’t registered. Queensland, like some other states, has a requirement for HTVs to be registered, but I just had a look at the sections on HTV registration in the Qld electoral act and they only seem to refer to parties and candidates, not ‘third-parties’, unlike in other states such as NSW. It may well be that the LNP intended ‘third-parties’ to be covered by a HTV registration regime, and that would be sensible and works well in NSW, but I don’t see where it does. Can someone point me to where it says HTVs other than those from a party or candidate have to be registered?
These ‘just vote 1’ campaigns that may confuse voters have been a concern to me for some time, eg the NSW Nats TV advertising in 2007, and I suspect we will see more from the Coalition in this year’s NSW election. There needs to be consideration of how to clamp down on campaigns that may mislead voters into thinking that they can’t mark additional preferences.
I find it hard to believe that the QEC would turn voters away for not having ID. Perhaps the voter could not accurately identify their address and/or match it with the name at that address which should be their name. Further a voter who has moved within Queensland or moved to QLD from another state, but has not advised the AEC or the QEC of there new address, may have problems voting.
The issue will be polling staff confused by the new procedure who don’t realise they are meant to offer a declaration vote to someone without ID. In NSW 2007 there were reports of absentee voters being denied votes because of problems with a new electronic roll and the officials not understanding they should still have let the voter cast a declaration vote for later verification of their enrolment status. Very easy to see how this new law would be misunderstood by many polling officials
Regardless of the seat where a voter chooses to vote, or the presentation of ID, EVERYONE can lodge a Declaration Vote. Always have been, always will!
The LNP isn’t legal
Galaxy exit poll as reported by Channel Nine – ALP 54-46
Its 6.49 pm in Victoria now. What time is it in Qld as I don’t think they are on daylight saving
In Victoria last federal election PUP paid overseas backpackers $25 an hour to hand out HTV’s. I spoke to some of them at booths in Albert Park Vic.
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