Voting here is managed by the Australian Electoral Commission, whose remit is (according to their
website) "To deliver the franchise: that is, an Australian citizen's right to vote, as established by the Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918."
The AEC manages elections in accordance with their '
four elements of electoral integrity':
- Accuracy – all of the elements of the franchise will correctly reflect the characteristics and intentions of the electors.
- Completeness – the franchise will be delivered to every eligible Australian.
- Entitlement – the franchise will not be delivered to those not eligible to participate.
- Capability – the expectation that the AEC will do a competent job, consistent with the requirements of the relevant legislation and the Australian Public Service values. This is reflected in outputs that result from a focus on electoral integrity through operational compliance and the AEC's values of quality, agility and professionalism. Capability is made up of three sub-elements:
security (of elector information, AEC data, and physical assets such as ballot papers);
reliability (procedural correctness and compliance with policies and the Electoral Act); and
transparency (to candidates and voters, or data and processes, including availability of procedural justice).
There is a lot more detail on the liked website; but what this boils down to in practice is that the AEC are proudly independent of party politics, and fiercely committed to ensuring that every eligible voter has the opportunity to vote.
Polling day is always a Saturday, and polls are open from 8am to 6pm. I have been a political party scrutineer at a variety of polling places (all metropolitan), and in my experience, the wait times for voters are rarely very long; There is usually a long line of early voters who arrive before the polls open, and this can take a couple of hours to clear (as more people keep arriving); there is another peak around lunchtime, and a third in the evening at about 4-5pm, but the total wait for an individual rarely exceeds half an hour even at the opening peak, the lunchtime rush, and the late afternoon peak. Between these times, there is often no wait at all at the smaller voting places; In my electoral division, there were 96,516 enrolled voters for the 2013 Federal election, and 35 Polling places within the division (mostly state schools) at which any resident can vote - so if everyone cast an ordinary vote at a polling place, there would be an average of about 2,700 voters per polling place over the ten hours of voting. Of course, some locations are more popular and/or accessible than others, so in reality there's a wide variation; The busiest location here had 3,658 votes cast, and the least busy only 182 - the less busy locations tend to be on the boundaries of the district, and share a school hall with a polling place for the neighbouring district.
Busy locations are supplied with more AEC staff (most of whom are volunteers, and many of whom are government employees during the week - quite a few are teachers at the schools used as polling places), so wait times are kept to a minimum; if you get bored of waiting or the lines are long, you can always come back later - or go to a less busy polling place nearby.
If voters meet certain broad elegibility requirements, they can cast a pre-poll vote, at one of four locations in the division, or at the Brisbane City Hall (which hosts pre-poll voting for a large number of surrounding divisions); pre-poll voting is open about three weeks prior to polling day. Eligibility for 'early voting' is determined as follows:
You can vote early either in person or by post if on election day you:
are outside the electorate where you are enrolled to vote
are more than 8km from a polling place
are travelling
are unable to leave your workplace to vote
are seriously ill, infirm or due to give birth shortly (or caring for someone who is)
are a patient in hospital and can't vote at the hospital
have religious beliefs that prevent you from attending a polling place
are in prison serving a sentence of less than three years or otherwise detained
are a silent elector
have a reasonable fear for your safety.
These rules are so broad, and so vague, that essentially anyone who wants to can vote early - and no checking or enforcement is done; If you say "I expect to be out of town on polling day", then that's good enough, and nobody will care if it turns out that you are at home that day after all. About 17% of votes in my division in 2013 were pre-poll votes.
Voters can also cast an 'absentee' ballot at ANY polling place in their home state or territory on polling day; or at a number of consulates and embassies overseas.
The AEC also has teams of mobile voting booths that travel to hospitals, prisons, nursing homes and remote areas on, and in the lead up to, polling day, for the benefit of eligible voters who are unable to travel to the polls.
It is now mandatory to show ID to vote in Queensland State Elections; The QEC sends every enrolled voter a voter card before the election, and that card is considered sufficient ID; but any other ID with the voter's name is also accepted. This is the only voter ID law currently in Australia, and is under review with a view to scrapping it (although similar law that would affect Federal elections is under consideration, so go figure). For elections other than QLD State elections, no ID is required; the voter provides their name and address details to the electoral commission staff, who cross the name off their list, and issue a ballot paper (or papers). These records are scanned and checked for duplications and discrepancies after the close of the poll, and any serious indications of fraud could, in principle, lead to the election being declared void and a new poll being called.
As voting is compulsory, and turnouts are very high, it would be very difficult to commit widespread fraud without it being detected in this way; I am not aware of it ever having occurred; although the WA Half-Senate election of 2013 was re-done in 2014 after 1,375 ballot papers went missing during the recount; A new election was ordered by the High Court of Australia, sitting as the Court of Disputed Returns, and a similar outcome would be expected if there were sufficient duplicated votes in a division to have likely affected the result.
