Voting at State elections and referenda is compulsory for eligible electors.
Over the coming days the Commission will be sending out Apparent Failure to Vote - Penalty Notices to electors who appear not to have voted at the 11 March 2017 State general election.
Under section 156 of the Electoral Act 1907 it is an offence for an elector to fail to vote at a State election unless the elector has a valid and sufficient reason for not voting.
Tasmanian Legislative Council Election for Divisions of Launceston, Murchison and Rumney
The Commission will provide early voting services for electors voting in the Tasmanian Legislative Council Election for the Divisions of Launceston, Murchison and Rumney from 18 April – 5 May 2017.
Electors can visit the Commission at Level 2, 111 St Georges Terrace, Perth, between 8.30 am–5.00 pm, Monday to Friday to complete an early vote (in person).
Please note that the WAEC office will be closed for ANZAC Day, Tuesday 25 April 2017.
Under section 99F of the Electoral Act 1907 the results of any audit into the deployment of technology assisted voting is to be published on the Commission’s website following the close of polling.
The Legislative Council vacancies in the East Metropolitan and North Metropolitan Regions caused by the resignations of the Hon. Amber-Jade Sanderson and the Hon. Peter Katsambanis have today been filled by Bill Leadbetter for the East Metropolitan Region and Elise Irwin for the North Metropolitan Region.
Under the provisions of s156D of the Electoral Act 1907, full re-counts of all votes cast in the most recent Legislative Council elections, held on 9 March 2013, commenced at 4pm on 4 April 2017.
Summaries of the re-counts are available for download:
In accordance with legislative requirements, vacancies in the East Metropolitan and North Metropolitan Regions were advertised on 25 March 2017 in The West Australian and The Australian. Nominations for both vacancies closed at 12 noon today, 4 April 2017.
At the close of nominations, the Electoral Commissioner had received three formal nominations for the East Metropolitan Region and four nominations for the North Metropolitan Region, from the following qualified candidates (in alphabetical order).
NSW State by-elections in three districts – Gosford, Manly and North Shore
The election date for the above three by-elections is Saturday 8th April 2017, early voting is now open.
For interstate voting services in these by-elections please access the NSW iVote system directly via the NSW Electoral Commission website.
At the 2013 general election there was concern over the particularly high rate of informality across a number Legislative Assembly districts. Given the system of full preferential voting and tight formality rules, the state-wide average for the Legislative Assembly was 6%. Some seats in the Perth metropolitan area with high concentrations of new citizens and culturally and linguistically diverse (CaLD) electors recorded rates approaching 10%.
As a result a range of initiatives and changes were implemented for the 2017 election in an effort to improve the situation.
The vote calculation and Returning Officer declaration for the final two upper house regions, the South and North Metropolitan regions, is scheduled to take place from 3.00 pm this afternoon, Saturday 25 March 2017.
The verification of results process for the South Metropolitan region took longer than anticipated, hence it was rescheduled to this afternoon.
The counting of votes in the Legislative Assembly was concluded yesterday.
Final results are as per the figures on the 2017 State Election page on the Commission’s website
Counting has concluded in the Mining and Pastoral and Agricultural regions and the results were formally declared yesterday.
Nominations for vacancies in the East Metropolitan and North Metropolitan Regions will open when notices of the vacancies are published in The West Australian and The Australian on Saturday, 25 March 2017. The vacancy in the East Metropolitan Region has occurred following the resignation of the Hon. Amber-Jade Sanderson, whilst the resignation of the Hon. Peter Katsambanis has caused a vacancy in the North Metropolitan Region. Both members have since been elected to the Legislative Assembly in the recent State election.